Fireworks junk on shore stirs call for action

State officials are mulling whether to require new permits for firework companies after pyrotechnic debris washed up on parts of San Francisco’s shoreline after two Super Bowl shows.

Five volunteers from Shark Stewards, a nonprofit that advocates ocean health, collected 30 pounds of trash, including more than 1,000 pieces of plastic, Saturday — a day after the second Super Bowl fireworks show off the Embarcadero, according to David McGuire, the organization’s director. The haul included cardboard casings, plastic caps, and what appeared to be unspent shells.

McGuire and other environmental advocates are worried the fireworks debris they collected is only half the story.

“It’s not like we just clean up the beach and it goes away,” he said. “How many pounds of that plastic is still out there?”

Macy’s, which put on the shows, hired Pyro Spectaculars to launch the fireworks from a barge at the start and end of Super Bowl week. After the first show on Jan. 30 — which National Park Service officials said deposited in Aquatic Park enough firework junk to fill four 50- gallon trash containers — Macy’s officials said they took additional steps to minimize pollution. The fireworks company changed its materials, secured them better on the barge and collected debris after the show, said Orlando Veras, a Macy’s spokesman.

But when Shark Stewards volunteers did their regular cleanup of the shoreline the next day, which usually focuses on cigarette butts, they found another load of pyrotechnic litter — though not as large as what park officials found the week before.

“This is unacceptable when we’re doing something for our entertainment and it’s adding to this plastic load,” McGuire said, referring to the millions of tons of plastic that enter the ocean every year.

In the wake of the cleanup efforts, a watchdog group that fights ocean pollution is now urging regional water agency officials to require Clean Water Act permits for companies to launch fireworks.

“We haven’t heard of this kind of debris coming onto the shore during our 26 years watch- dogging the Bay,” said Sejal Choksi- Chugh, director of the group, San Francisco Baykeeper.

And regional water control officials are listening.

Lila Tang, a division chief of the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board, said agency officials are looking into the possibility of mandating Clean Water Act permits for firework shows over bodies of water, and there’s a good chance they will enact the measure. Ideally, Tang said, the requirement would be statewide rather than region by region. The board may also investigate what happened during the Super Bowl shows and fine those responsible.

The permit action wouldn’t be without precedent. The San Diego water quality office began requiring the permits in 2011, according to Ben Neill, a water resource control engineer in San Diego.

The permits require companies launching fireworks to show proof ahead of time that the pyrotechnics will not pollute the water.

“The companies need to step up and clean up their mess,” Choksi-Chugh said. “It’s pretty unacceptable that nonprofits have to step in.”