SANDPOINT — Bonner County’s public waters ordinance has been overhauled, but boaters won’t encounter any changes unless they’re accused of violating it.

“There really wasn’t anything of substance that we changed,” said Bonner County commission Chairman Cary Kelly.

The ordinance was updated to reflect new modes of waterways travel and recreation (stand-up paddleboards and wake surfing) and reorganized. Legal definitions were expanded and consolidated. A new section comprehensively lists no-wake zones and clarifies restricted zones.

“We had kind of piecemeal changed the ordinance here and there through the years so this was just kind of cleaning the whole thing up,” said Kelly. “If you read it now, it’s organized better. It makes sense. The definitions are consistent.”

Other than changes to fees for violating the boating code, the song remains the same — no-wake zones extend 200 feet from shore and structures on the Pend Oreille River and Priest and Pend Oreille lakes. You’ll get slapped with a misdemeanor if you dump sewage into a waterway and it’s still against the law to water ski, wakeboard or wake surve on Upper Priest Lake.

Changes of note include a new fee schedule that supplants a state template. The county boosted the speed limit violation fine from $75 to $90 to reflect the seriousness of the of the transgression. A failure-to-yield penalty was boosted to $150 for likewise reasons.

The sheriff’s marine division and the county’s waterways advisory board spent about a year getting the ordinance shipshape.