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Steamboat Springs — Boating under the influence laws got a bit tougher this week, with the blood alcohol threshold lowered to 0.08 percent and the law expanded to cover the operators of any waterborne vehicle.

"Each year, about 25 people are arrested for BUI," Colorado State Parks spokeswoman Deb Frazier said. "But there've been a number of incidents, including one that involved a fatality, where they were just slightly below that 0.1, and that's why this legislation came to be passed."

The changes to the law, which went into effect Tuesday, are the result of the passage of Senate Bill 159, legislation sponsored by Sen. Ron Tupa, D-Boulder.

The 0.08 blood alcohol concentration threshold holds operators of waterborne vessels to the same standard as motor vehicle drivers on the state's roads. The misdemeanor charge also carries similar penalties - five days to one year in jail, $200 to $1,000 in fines, up to 96 hours of useful public service and loss of the privilege to operate a vessel for three months.

"Driving under the influence, of course, is not a good thing. Boating under the influence is even more stressful, because you've got motion, you've got noise, you've got waves, you've got vibration. You don't have stop signs, stop lights, signals," Frazier said. "It's just more dangerous."

A boat operator with a blood alcohol level of 0.1 is estimated to be 10 times more likely than a sober operator to die in a boating accident, Frazier said.

While recent years have been devoid of serious boating accidents or arrests in Routt County, incidents of boating under the influence of alcohol do happen, said Julie Arington, park manager of Steamboat Lake and Pearl Lake state parks.

"We do regular boat patrols, and I think that deters a lot of activity," Arington said. "Safety, obviously, is always a concern."

The changes to the law also allow for kayakers, rafters and jet skiers to be charged with boating under the influence, instead of only the operators of motorboats and sailboats.

Nationwide, only about 9 percent of boating accidents are alcohol-related, Frazier said. But, when alcohol is involved, 35 percent of accidents result in fatalities, and 78 percent cause injury, she said.

"It's not the boating that's the problem, it's the drinking," Frazier said. "We're hoping that this new law makes boating safer for everyone."