Anheuser Busch’s SeaWorld Adventure Park announced Aug. 20 that it would stop its “Summer Nights” fireworks displays until they determine whether or not a permit from the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board is necessary.
Two months earlier, San Diego Coastkeeper filed a 60-day Notice of Intent (NOI) to bring litigation against the corporation for discharging potentially dangerous chemicals into Mission Bay without a permit.
Sea World’s decision to pull the nightly show came within days of the NOI’s expiration; consequently, Coastkeeper has chosen not to take legal action.
Coastkeeper claims the display violated the Clean Water Act, while SeaWorld contends that a permit has never been required for the longtime show.
The display, which typically goes off daily at 9:50 p.m. from Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day, started in 1968. The park puts on an estimated 120 firework shows each year.
“We have never been required or requested to have a permit by the water board,” said Dave Koontz, public relations director for SeaWorld San Diego. “But in light of the NOI, we decided that the most appropriate action was to ask the Water Quality Control Board to determine if a permit is required.”
In order to determine if a permit is needed, SeaWorld must fill out an application for the water board to evaluate, Koontz said.
Bruce Reznick, executive director of San Diego Coastkeeper, said the situation boils down to regulatory laziness.
“We’ve talked to agency officials and basically they said they’ll process a permit once it comes to them, but they are not going to be pro-active in ensuring there is a permit,” Reznick said. “I think it is an abdication of their responsibility. They need to be held accountable for that failure.”
Coastkeeper filed their NOI, because they felt it was time to bypass the water board and force action. Coastkeeper’s message was falling on deaf ears and enough was enough, Reznick said.
Reznick continued that dangerous chemicals, such as cadmium, arsenic, chromium, mercury, lead and zinc “” all found in common fireworks “” could be hazardous for Mission Bay, as well as paper trash from the firework casing.
Koontz said he guarantees that none of these chemicals are found in SeaWorld’s fireworks. He also described SeaWorld’s five-year-old monitoring program, which works closely with Science Applications International Corporations, a leading system, solutions and technical services company in San Diego.
The program analyzes water and sediment of Mission Bay near the fireworks display and sweeps the area around the firework barge to pick up any possible paper debris that may have fallen into the water. A morning-after sweep covers the area south of Fiesta Island and the beach on the north side of SeaWorld property, Koontz said.
“The reports of the analysis are submitted to the water board, California Coastal Commission and a variety of other agencies,” Koontz said. “To date, those monitoring efforts have detected absolutely no adverse impact to Mission Bay.
However, SeaWorld only compares their water samples near the firework barge to another area of the bay, said John Robertus, executive director of the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board, not a distinctly different body of water.
While both Coastkeeper and the water board agree that at this time there is no adverse impact on Mission Bay, they insist that does not mean it could not be an issue in the future.
Robertus said Mission Bay has poor circulation and is very shallow, and with over 100 fireworks displays from a barge in the same location, pollutants from the fireworks, propellants and the display charges themselves could build up.
“SeaWorld may be doing everything they can to minimize the impact of the fireworks on Mission Bay, and the best way to know that for sure is to get a permit,” Reznick said. “My hope and expectation is that in the next few years we are going to see firework displays over waterways getting permits. That’s the only way we can get a handle on that.”
Results from the relatively unprecedented case could change water quality requirements for firework displays statewide. The board would then require a statewide permit specific to firework discharges over water.
According to Koontz, SeaWorld plans to have their permit application submitted as soon as possible.
The lengthy permitting process will require scientific investigation and review. It should take about three to six months before the water board takes action in resolving the issue, Robertus said.