SANDPOINT — Bonner County Sheriff Daryl Wheeler is asking county commissioners to enact an ordinance restricting wake boats on the Pend Oreille River.

“I have been contacted by property owners along the Pend Oreille River, who, over the last few years, have experienced an incredible amount of damage to their shorelines, docks and boats,” Wheeler said in a letter to commissioners on Tuesday.

Wheeler adds in the letter that one homeowner has spent more than $40,000 repairing the damage caused by vessels specifically designed to cast off large wakes.

Landowners said advances in wake boat technology are resulting in increasingly damaging wakes that erode shoreline, batter boats and pummel docks. Modern wake boats can take on ballast water that can be leveraged into generating larger wakes for boarders and surfers.

Riverfront landowner Rich Cramer supports such a prohibition.

“Up and down the river, everybody’s getting beat up,” Cramer said of the wakes, the size of which grow as the technology grows more refined.

Incoming wakes were strong enough rip a cleat affixed to a 4-by-6-inch plank, which unmoored his cabin cruiser. Wave action has also gouged the boat’s hull in collisions with the dock.

Cramer has spent more than $4,000 to install protective piers and new mooring system to protect his dock. That sum, however, doesn’t account for the undermining of a sea wall on his property.

“This is so destructive. It’s unbelievable,” said Cramer.

Riverfront landowners have been clamoring for wake boats to be relegated to Lake Pend Oreille for the better part of year. They argue the prohibition isn’t too onerous because those vessels can still access the lake, which provides ample room for wakes to dissipate before reaching shore.

But the proposal never made its way out of the Bonner County Waterways Committee, which instead favored better enforcement of the county’s no-wake zone ordinance and a public awareness campaign

The Idaho Lakes Commission developed a “ride the core, avoid the shore” campaign, although its promotion in the community amounted to some bumper stickers and floating key fobs.

The sheriff’s marine division conducted emphasis patrols to target wake zone scofflaws, although some waterfront landowners said they never saw the patrols.

Wake zone violation citations accounted for 77 percent of the tickets that were issued during the seven-week period, marine division records indicate.

Wheeler is requesting that commissioners schedule a workshop to discuss wake boat regulation on the river.

Cramer, meanwhile, hopes commissioners will have the will to enact an ordinance.

“It’s like a hot iron. No one wants to touch it,” he said.

Keith Kinnaird can be reached by email at kkinnaird@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow him on Twitter @KeithDailyBee.