The Big Bang on the Bay, a massively popular Long Beach fireworks show that takes place annually over the water on the eve of the Fourth of July, has been canceled because it couldn’t get the necessary approvals, organizers announced this week.
Also see: San Pedro’s Fourth of July fireworks show at Cabrillo Beach canceled
The event’s organizers — local restaurateur John Morris and, for the first time, the Boys & Girls Clubs of Long Beach — were unable to finish the permit application for the California Coastal Commission in time. But they did say this week that they are hoping to host a fireworks show in the fall, which would allow them to finish the permit process and get the commission’s OK.
“This meant so much to everyone in the city,” said Don Rodriguez, president and CEO of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Long Beach, “and I feel like we weren’t able to provide them with what they were expecting and hoping to happen.”
Canceling this year’s show represents the nadir of an event that, in recent years, has been at once both wildly popular and controversial. While the Big Bang on the Bay, which is also a fundraiser for local nonprofits, has drawn thousands of people annually since 2011, the July 3 event has also been condemned by environmentalists for the potential pollution caused by shooting off fireworks over Alamitos Bay.
Environmentalists have filed multiple lawsuits against Big Bang on the Bay, accusing Morris of violating the federal Clean Water Act, an allegation he has routinely denied.
Morris won the most-recent lawsuit last year, though the judge’s decision also left environmentalists claiming partial victory. That’s because even though the judge dismissed the lawsuit, brought by the Coastal Environmental Rights Foundation, he also said there was sufficient evidence that fireworks discharge made it into Alamitos Bay during the 2022 show — violating the CWA.
That set a precedent, according to the nonprofit advocacy group, that fireworks shows should be regulated under the CWA via a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit, which aims to prevent water pollution by regulating the sources that cause it. The Los Angeles County Regional Water Quality Control Board, which is charged with protecting the water supply of the LA and Ventura regions, agreed. And in May 2023, the water board suddenly adopted a new fireworks-related permitting process for over-the-water shows.
That decision led some fireworks producers in the region to pull out of over-the-water shows and caused some events, including one in Redondo Beach, to be canceled last year. It also drew the ire of Morris, who, at the time, called the ruling furstrating and unnecessary. Still, Morris applied for and received the five-year NPDES permit.
But ultimately, it was a different permitting issue that blocked this year’s show.
“There are 30-something coastal firework shows on the Fourth,” Morris said in an interview this week, “and this is the only one that is not happening.”
Because of the lawsuits and last year’s challenges, Morris said, he decided to hand over Big Bang on the Bay to the beneficiaries – the local nonprofits.
In December, the Boys & Girls Clubs of Long Beach decided it would take charge of the event, Rodriguez said.
But that meant undertaking the complex and time-consuming task of obtaining a coastal development permit from the California Coastal Commission.
To obtain a permit, organizers must file an application and then receive commission approval during a hearing, said Shannon Vaughn, the coastal program manager for the state agency.
“The Coastal Development Permit is necessary when any sort of development, which is partially defined by state law, is proposed within a coastal zone,” Vaughn said. “In this case, the CDP is required because there are impacts to coastal resources that we are concerned about. There are a lot of nesting birds in this area, water quality and public access.”
The timeline for processing a CDP application varies based on the difficulty of the project and the biological resources impacted, Vaughn said. Once the commission receives a completed application, the law requires 180 days to get a project to a hearing, she said. Commission staffers are also required to post a public notice for the hearing.
“For a project like this, it might take a couple of months just to make sure we have the description correct, the site plan correct, and we understand all the different components of the project,” Vaughn said. “We need time to write a staff report, and we have legislatively mandated deadlines when we have to get reports published before a hearing.”
Essentially, submitting the application is only the start of the process, said Sarah Christie, the commission’s legislative director.
The commission, in a Wednesday, June 5, statement, said staffers initially asked to meet with Morris’ Naples Restaurant Group, LLC, which was last year’s applicant, on Jan. 29 and then again a month later.
Morris responded to the second request, saying he would submit the application the following week, the commission’s statement said.
But that didn’t seem to happen.
Instead, the Boys & Girls Clubs of Long Beach began working with the commission in late April, the agency said. Morris and Rodriguez, though, said they began the application process in March.
And either way, the permit application didn’t arrive until May 15, Vaughn said — a day after the commission’s June agenda was published. (The meeting is next week.)
That was too late, Vaughn said.
“There’s just no way it is physically possible to be able to handle it on that timeframe,” Christie said.
And, she added, it was not considered a complete application.
Rodriguez, for his part, said his staffers were not aware of the deadline for the process, as it was their first time applying. Staffers went through the process, he said — but didn’t learn they were off by a day until it was too late.
“We’re very disappointed,” Rodriguez said. “It was something we were looking at being our biggest fundraiser of the year; this would be our signature event going forward.”
The nonprofit decided to host the event, Rodriguez said, not only to make it the clubs’ biggest fundraiser but also to give back to the Long Beach community.
“We thought that this was a way for the Boys & Girls Clubs of Long Beach to give back to the city of Long Beach,” Rodriguez said, “to take on this event and bring people together and raise funds not only for our kids but also giving them an opportunity to go out there and see the fireworks show.
“Normally, they would not have the opportunity to do that,” he added. “We were going to provide that for them and provide some service to the community and give back.”
Morris, meanwhile, said he feels bad for the charities for which the Big Bang on the Bay raises money, particularly the Boys & Girls Clubs. That organization canceled its annual gala to host Big Bang on the Bay.
“They’re causing 10 charities to lose out this year that have made money during the Big Bang every year,” Morris, who owns the Boathouse on the Bay restaurant, said about the commission. “It’s never about the people.”
But the commission’s staffers said Morris knew since last summer that this year’s application would require specific attention. The commission, they said, made that clear during the permit hearing for last year’s show. Several commissioners instructed Morris to, among other things, look into light show alternatives, such as a drone show, that may reduce impacts on the environment.
That request, though, hasn’t been isolated to Big Bang on the Bay.
The Coastal Commission, in fact, has been working to safeguard the environment against any potential impacts related to fireworks, and has been exploring alternatives, such as light shows, the state agency said in its Wednesday statement.
But Morris said on Wednesday that a drone show would not be possible in Alamitos Bay.
“Alamitos Bay, we are the best sailing spot in the world,” he said, “and we have winds late in the day and early evening and if those winds are over 12 to 15 miles an hour, you can not do a drone show.”
Drones, Morris added, would also mean people watching from other angles of the bay – such as from Naples and the peninsula – would not get the same visual experience.
Morris and Rodriguez, though, have not given up on hosting a fireworks event this year. They both said they had reached out to Long Beach to see if there was something else that could be done
Representatives from the city manager’s office met with the Coastal Commission’s staffers to understand the disconnect between the applicant and the commission, and explore whether there were any feasible ways to allow for the permit for the July 3 event.
“The City of Long Beach has a number of options to address permit issues when timelines are short, such as supplemental agendas and special meetings of the City Council where needed, but unfortunately the Coastal Commission does not have those same tools,” the city manager’s office said in a statement. “As there are no options for (the commission) to grant permission for the fireworks show, the city has been in contact with the event organizers and the Coastal Commission to explore options to move this to a later date in the fall and secure the necessary coastal permits.”
The commission’s staffers will continue working with the Boys & Girls Clubs of Long Beach to finish the permit process and will work quickly to bring the project to a hearing in time for an alternative event in the fall, Vaughn said. Rodriguez and Morris said they will shoot for Labor Day weekend.
“We’re not going to give in; we’re going to keep going and if all else fails, we’re going to do Labor Day Sunday,” Morris said, “and make sure the paperwork is filed the very next day for July 3.”
