Thursday, April 05, 2007
By Jack Innis
SAN DIEGO - At about 9 p.m. on March 31, boaters in Mission Bay looked skyward to witness something they hadn't seen in more than seven months: fireworks!
SeaWorld's pyrotechnics displays, which for years have lit up the sky for about six minutes nightly throughout the summer, were abruptly cancelled Aug. 19, 2006 to avoid a lawsuit from the San Diego Coastkeeper, an environmental group that contends chemical and paper residue from the fireworks pollute Mission Bay.
The nightly fireworks are a 30-year tradition enjoyed by boaters and residents alike. Hundreds of recreational boats also crowd Mission Bay on Independence Day to witness several such displays from SeaWorld, Mission Bay Yacht Club and the Ocean Beach Pier, among others.
Boaters up and down the California coast have worried that litigation and threats of litigation from environmental groups such as Coastkeeper could effectively ban over-water fireworks displays, which are an American maritime tradition dating back to the Revolutionary War.
Whether SeaWorld's fireworks cause pollution was the subject of a long-term study mandated by the theme park's master plan. The 17-page third-party study, issued shortly before Coastkeeper's actions, concluded that the theme park's fireworks produce no significant pollution. Paper remnants from the pyrotechnic skyrockets are picked up periodically after each event. Monitoring of the bay has shown no accumulation of pollutants, despite that the fireworks have been launched over the same section of water for 30 years.
Despite no previous legal requirement to apply for a discharge permit, SeaWorld filed late last year with the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board.
The board, uncertain as to its supposed role in monitoring over-water fireworks displays, after receiving the application asked state and federal officials what to do about claims from Coastkeeper that the exhibitors need water and air pollution permits, according to a report recently televised on San Diego affiliate KGTV Channel 10 news.
Coastkeeper contends SeaWorld's fireworks shows potentially dump up to 40,000 pounds of fireworks into Mission Bay every year, the group's attorney Marco Gonzalez said in a KPBS radio interview last year in defense of his group's lawsuit.
Whether SeaWorld is able to continue its fireworks program may depend upon the feedback the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board gets from state and federal authorities. If it is decided SeaWorld is polluting the bay, it could mean an end to most over-water fireworks displays along the coast.
If the board decides a discharge permit is necessary, it would be up to SeaWorld officials to decide whether the program merits that much additional expense. Discharge permits - typically mandated for entities such as shipyards - may cost thousands of dollars to acquire and even more to conduct periodic water monitoring.
By Jack Innis
SAN DIEGO - At about 9 p.m. on March 31, boaters in Mission Bay looked skyward to witness something they hadn't seen in more than seven months: fireworks!
SeaWorld's pyrotechnics displays, which for years have lit up the sky for about six minutes nightly throughout the summer, were abruptly cancelled Aug. 19, 2006 to avoid a lawsuit from the San Diego Coastkeeper, an environmental group that contends chemical and paper residue from the fireworks pollute Mission Bay.
The nightly fireworks are a 30-year tradition enjoyed by boaters and residents alike. Hundreds of recreational boats also crowd Mission Bay on Independence Day to witness several such displays from SeaWorld, Mission Bay Yacht Club and the Ocean Beach Pier, among others.
Boaters up and down the California coast have worried that litigation and threats of litigation from environmental groups such as Coastkeeper could effectively ban over-water fireworks displays, which are an American maritime tradition dating back to the Revolutionary War.
Whether SeaWorld's fireworks cause pollution was the subject of a long-term study mandated by the theme park's master plan. The 17-page third-party study, issued shortly before Coastkeeper's actions, concluded that the theme park's fireworks produce no significant pollution. Paper remnants from the pyrotechnic skyrockets are picked up periodically after each event. Monitoring of the bay has shown no accumulation of pollutants, despite that the fireworks have been launched over the same section of water for 30 years.
Despite no previous legal requirement to apply for a discharge permit, SeaWorld filed late last year with the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board.
The board, uncertain as to its supposed role in monitoring over-water fireworks displays, after receiving the application asked state and federal officials what to do about claims from Coastkeeper that the exhibitors need water and air pollution permits, according to a report recently televised on San Diego affiliate KGTV Channel 10 news.
Coastkeeper contends SeaWorld's fireworks shows potentially dump up to 40,000 pounds of fireworks into Mission Bay every year, the group's attorney Marco Gonzalez said in a KPBS radio interview last year in defense of his group's lawsuit.
Whether SeaWorld is able to continue its fireworks program may depend upon the feedback the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board gets from state and federal authorities. If it is decided SeaWorld is polluting the bay, it could mean an end to most over-water fireworks displays along the coast.
If the board decides a discharge permit is necessary, it would be up to SeaWorld officials to decide whether the program merits that much additional expense. Discharge permits - typically mandated for entities such as shipyards - may cost thousands of dollars to acquire and even more to conduct periodic water monitoring.