SANDPOINT — Bonner County landowners, boaters and officials put their hands on the slippery issue of damaging boat wakes on Monday.

A subcommittee of the county’s Waterways Advisory Committee hosted a workshop to gather input on the issue and seek potential solutions to curbing damage caused by wakes that trail powerboats on local waterways. Although the survey is still ongoing, it became clear during the exercise that disagreement tends to abound when it comes how damaging wakes could be addressed through additional regulation.

There appeared to be general agreement, however, that education-centric initiatives should continue or be enhanced.

Waterfront landowners on Lake Pend Oreille, and particularly the Pend Oreille River, have been clamoring for the county to firmly address the issue of damaging wakes, which erode protected and unprotected shoreline and wreak havoc on docks and other costly shoreline infrastructure.

Waterfront landowner Tom Suttmeier said he spent $16,000 armoring his property with rip-rap, but lost his dock shield and a boat lift, upping his losses to $30,000.

“Thirty thousand bucks is a big deal,” said Suttmeier, a former county commissioner.

The Bonner County Sheriff’s Marine Division conducted emphasis patrols on the river last summer for the specific purpose of dealing with no-wake zone scofflaws, although landowners said they scarcely saw a deputy patrolling the waters.

The division’s chief, Lt. Ed Jochum, said enforcing the county’s 200-foot no-wake zone rules is challenging because the river is 26 miles long and only has two vessels to patrol it. Moreover, sheriff’s boat cut a pretty distinctive image on the water, which causes boaters to suddenly restrain themselves. But when marine deputies leave an area, scofflaws are suddenly unrestrained.

“It’s difficult to enforce,” Jochum admitted.

In a bid to flesh out potential solutions to address the problem of damaging boat wakes, the county arranged for workshop attendees to participate in a real-time survey of the room using remote controls that allowed the 80-plus participants to anonymously register their support for or opposition to a variety of measures aimed at combating wake damage. They included local or state boater education courses, extending no-wake zones, allowing wake zone violators to undergo boater education in lieu of a fine, and restricting activities on certain parts of the lake or river.

Jim Shannon, director of Bonner County Parks & Recreation, emphasized that the subcommittee has not endorsed any of the potential fixes and is eager to hear from those who have other suggestions on how to address the matter.

“These are not solutions that the subcommittee has agreed on unanimously,” said Shannon.

However, Shannon said a blanket implementation of a no-wake zone on the river downstream of Dover was not on the table because it too badly hinders navigation on the waterway.

The subcommittee sought input on extending no-wake zones on the river west of Dover, requiring wake sport enthusiasts to use the widest parts of the river and lake, and stepping up enforcement of the county’s no-wake rules.

Prohibiting wake surfers on the river west of Dover proved to be one of the more polarizing proposals during the workshop, with 41 percent of the participants strongly disagreeing with such a move and 39 percent strongly supporting it.

The perceived culprits of the no-wake zone violators was a moving target. Wake surfers, which glide untethered behind large powerboat wakes, were seen by many during the workshop as the chief culprit, while others pinned the problem on large cabin cruisers and even water skiers, who largely eschew wakes in order to carve slalom turns on glassy waters but have been known to venture too close to shore. Some argued that storms were a bigger problem on the lake than wake-sport enthusiasts.

The county plans to post a survey link on its website so others who were unable to attend the workshop can lend their voice to the discussion (www.bonnercountid.gov/recreation).

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