Pressure builds from Coastal Commission to trim San Diego’s Big Bay Boom fireworks

Fireworks explode over San Diego Bay during the annual Big Bay Boom fireworks show in 2024. (Meg McLaughlin / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

By Lori Weisberg
Union-Tribune

The Port of San Diego will be required to study the possibility of putting on a drone show in place of conventional fireworks for future Fourth of July waterfront celebrations.

San Diego’s annual Big Bay Boom will go on as scheduled this year, but California Coastal Commissioners put port officials and the event’s organizer on notice Thursday that they need to start looking at ways to rethink the use of fireworks during the Fourth of July celebration in order to protect the bay and nearby wildlife.

The commission agreed that not only does the scale of the show need to be downsized, but it may need to transition in future years to a drone-only show that could potentially substitute aerial colored lights and synchronized displays for conventional fireworks.

While coastal planners had previously been in discussions with Big Bay Boom organizers about moving sooner to a drone show, the staff acknowledged that the port and its partner, the Armed Services YMCA, would not have enough time to make such a major pivot so quickly.

Instead, the port, in the near-term, will have to trim by 15% the legally permitted number of pounds for all 2025 fireworks shows on state tidelands, including the Big Bay Boom and regular shows at the Rady Shell and USS Midway, among others. By 2026, an additional 5% reduction will be required.

As a practical matter, however, the Big Bay Boom and other shows will not have to scale back this year or next. As currently configured, they already fall well below what is permitted in the port’s fireworks ordinance.

More significantly, the port will have to undertake a study exploring the possibility of replacing fireworks with an aerial light show or using drones to complement a scaled-down fireworks event, beginning with the Fourth of July in 2027. The study, in part, will be required to look at previous drone shows conducted in other cities, as well as one that took place at Petco Park last April following a Padres game.

The commission’s action was the byproduct of continuing talks between coastal staff and port officials, who are supporting the new fireworks show requirements.

“This is really a transition,” Commission Executive Director Kate Huckelbridge said. “We want to promote and encourage other alternatives but understand that you can’t simply flip a switch and immediately get that changed … but I think this application really does move the needle and that’s where we’re trying to go here. We have heard you and understand there are coastal resource impacts from fireworks and we do need to begin to move away and avoid those.”

In recent years, the port’s allowed fireworks shows have not come close to approaching the number of pounds permitted by law — 9,056 for all fireworks displays. Last year’s Big Bay Boom came in at 4,350 pounds of pyrotechnics. It’s allowed to be up to 5,342.

In all, the San Diego Unified Port District currently has the right to conduct 47 shows each year. While the commission’s action will require reducing the overall tonnage for all shows to 7,245 pounds by 2026, the entirety of last year’s shows reached 5,688 pounds, according to the port’s calculations.

“While the Port acknowledges that the historic fireworks data for the years 2021-2024 show that in no year has anything close to 47 firework shows been conducted, with an annual average of 18 shows, such a reduction would still be a concession within the ordinance that the Port will have to negotiate with their tenants and represents a good faith effort to lessen the cumulative prevalence of fireworks over coastal waters,” states a staff report prepared by the Coastal Commission.

Lesley Nishihira, the port’s assistant vice president for planning, told the Union-Tribune that while the current size of the show would not be affected, the commission’s action could have an impact on potential plans for bigger shows for special celebrations, such as the upcoming 250th anniversary of the United States in 2026.

Nishihira told commissioners that while the port has been supportive of the collaborative efforts to make changes to the fireworks shows, it’s been challenging for the YMCA to pull everything together in time for this year’s Big Bay Boom.

“In the interest of collaboration and getting our permit by February, we have made some significant concessions,” Nishihira said of the requirement to reduce the tonnage of the shows. “And the port district commits to fund and complete the drone pilot project study.”

The commission action comes amid growing pressure in recent years to minimize the environmental impacts that fireworks can have. Most recently, San Diego Coastkeeper and the Coastal Environmental Rights Foundation announced their intent to sue SeaWorld over what they claim are Clean Water Act violations in connection with the theme park’s fireworks shows.

Thursday’s hearing marked a departure from past years when the Port of San Diego had been allowed by right to conduct its fireworks shows without getting buy-in from the commission. Coastal planners, however, decided last year that the shows warranted a closer look “in light of growing concern of impacts due to such events in the form of water pollution and noise disturbance of sensitive receptors such as the California least tern.”

A number of environmental groups, which are not fans of fireworks shows, applauded Thursday what they characterized as a sea change in how such shows have been handled in the past.

“We don’t usually support fireworks and we still don’t but we also understand that July 4 fireworks are a longstanding and very popular tradition and we can’t change it overnight,” said Mitch Silverstein, policy manager for San Diego-based Surfrider Foundation. “The fact that fireworks shows like the Big Bay Boom are now coming before the Coastal Commission is progress in and of itself.”

The Big Bay Boom, which typically attracts more than 250,000 people, utilizes four barges and eight support boats situated on San Diego Bay for launching the fireworks.

Among the many environmental concerns are impacts on nesting least terns. A monitoring report from last year’s show found that there was no permanent disruption to the small migratory seabirds as a result of the Fourth of July show, but it pointed out that “the agitated behavior of the least terns could potentially be considered a form of harassment impacting their long-term health.”

It added that there’s also the potential that fireworks debris such as casings, cylinders, and shell case fragments can harm wildlife, which may ingest the debris or become entangled in it.

As part of its coastal development permit for this year’s fireworks show, the port will be required to submit monitoring reports conducted by a biologist and resource specialists documenting impacts on marine wildlife, birds and water quality.

“This does take time and it takes a transition,” said Commissioner Roberto Uranga, a Long Beach City Council member. “And you’re having to get people used to the idea that fireworks are on their way out. Drones, perhaps, or maybe something else comes in … Traditions are great but some traditions just need to go away.”

Link to original article: https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2025/02/06/pressure-builds-from-coastal-commission-to-trim-san-diegos-big-bay-boom-fireworks/