OBMA officials fear July 4 celebration will lose some crackle
Organizers of fireworks displays in San Diego recently became the first in the country to be required to apply for and purchase an annual permit to celebrate the Fourth of July with pyrotechnics — and the move has sparked an explosion of debate. On May 11, the San Diego arm of the California Regional Water Quality Control Board voted unanimously to require a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Permit — at a cost of $1,450 — in order to allow organizers to lawfully discharge pollutants present in fireworks to comply with the federal Clean Water Act requirements. “It’s complete baloney,” said Denny Knox, executive director of the Ocean Beach MainStreet Association, the group that organizes the fireworks display at Ocean Beach Pier. “It’s a pay-to-play thing, and it will squeeze out all the little guys like us. This is a great tradition and the vast majority of residents enjoy it. So it’s sad to see some of these things going away.” The permit requirement, effective June 1, applies to displays over any body of water in the region and requires organizers to collect, remove and manage the debris created by the fireworks. It does not, however, require water quality and sediment monitoring to determine the extent to which the pollutants actually contribute to the degradation of surface water health. Environmental groups, which pushed for the permit regulations, contend fireworks contribute chemicals and other pollutants to surface waters. Though the move by the water quality control board was seen as an important step in recognizing the issue, the general consensus among those who lobbied for regulation was that the plan still doesn’t go far enough. San Diego Coastkeeper, which has been involved in lobbying for permits that require monitoring of coastal waters during fireworks displays, had hoped to see a more stringent plan — like the temporary permit requirement approved last September that mandated monitoring of contaminants in water and sediment — put in place. Gabrielle Solmer, Coastkeeper’s interim executive director, said the organization’s main complaint about the new permit requirement is its lack of required monitoring. “Frankly, we don’t know all of the impacts of fireworks on our waterways,” she said. “Studies have been done that show there is an impact, so the science is clear. But we don’t know the significance of that impact or what the best way to mitigate it is. You would think that monitoring would be the most important thing to include in a permit of this type.” Currently, the only fireworks show organizer required to monitor is SeaWorld, where regular fireworks displays throughout the year spell the need for greater attention. Monitoring there has been ongoing since 2007. David Barker, an engineer for the water quality control board, said the chief objective of the board in adopting the permit requirement was to give event organizers a way to lawfully discharge pollutants without the threat of legal action. “We do not want to prohibit these events,” he said. “What we do want is to reduce or eliminate the pollutants that get into our water.” Barker said the board considered the importance of required monitoring, but the expense of such a requirement would unfairly jeopardize the ability of the city’s smaller events to continue operating. In the end, the board decided to collect information from all area events and, based on that data, make a decision if monitoring should then be required in the future. Fireworks show organizers are required to submit a post-event report with detailed information regarding the volume of explosives discharged, the bodies of water over which they were released and the cleanup involved in removing debris. “We decided that, until we had more information on the specifics of each event, we couldn’t move forward with required monitoring,” he said. “Once we get the big picture, we can make a decision if we need that type of monitoring.” Barker said one of the chemicals of concern contained in fireworks is perchlorate, a contaminant used in rockets, missiles, pyrotechnics, batteries and safety flares. Perchlorate has increasingly been found in groundwater, surface water and soil and is a threat to human health because of the role it plays in interfering with iodide uptake in the thyroid gland. Though fireworks may not be the main cause of the perchlorate contaminating the drinking water, Barker said the water board recognized the importance of regulating any possible sources of the chemical. “This permit was a prudent move by the board,” he said, “given that perchlorate is found in fireworks.” For Knox and the Ocean Beach MainStreet Association, the show will go on. She said the group will still put on a fireworks display, albeit likely smaller than in previous years because of the permit fee. The money for such fees will come from the fund used to buy the fireworks. “We raise money for this by people putting change in cans. It’s not like someone writes us a check for $25,000,” she said. “We would not consider doing this if we thought there was irreparable damage to the ocean. This is our neighborhood and we do beach cleanups all the time. There are far more things that go into the ocean every day that are more damaging, and to single out an event that happens once a year for 17 minutes is just sad.”