© 2001 by Leo Poppoff

June 28, 2001

Basin Watch

by

Leo Poppoff

ARE FIREWORKS SAFE AND SANE FOR TAHOE?

For years, we would climb on the boulders overlooking Donner Lake on
July 4th evening and watch fireworks shower over the water. It was one
of the high points of the summer. Later, when we moved down to the Tahoe
Basin, we watched fireworks at Tahoe City and Kings Beach from the shore
and from the lake. It was always a lot of fun.

Every once in a while, though, someone asks if blasting fireworks over
Tahoe is good for the lake. Some folks think the effects are not
significant, while others think that it's bad for water quality. In
other words, no one knows. Two folks who often help me with material,
kindly sent me two articles about fireworks chemistry. One article
described the fabrication and composition of fireworks. The other
article listed all the bad stuff that fireworks deposit on water and in
sediments.

In this age of dizzying technological innovation, it's fascinating to
learn that the development of pyrotechnics hasn't progressed much over
the past thousand years. Black powder, the basis of fireworks, was used
in China before 1000 A.D. According to John Conkling of Washington
College, the composition of black powder has been quite consistent over
the centuries.

Conkling wrote that the ingredients were known to ancient civilizations.
He suspects that "the development of the mixture might well have begun
accidentally, perhaps around an ancient campfire." The Chinese developed
the use of black powder in rockets. They found that compressing the
powder into tubes produced considerable thrust. And using a restricted
orifice, or nozzle, increased the thrust. They also found that confining
the powder produced explosions and noise.

Colors produced by pre-19th century fireworks were limited. Charcoal and
iron filings in the mixture produced orange and gold effects but nothing
else, according to Conkling.

Europeans developed businesses by providing fireworks for weddings,
coronations and celebrations. Conkling notes that the Ruggieri firm that
put on huge fireworks displays for Louis XIV of France also produced the
massive fireworks display in Washington, D.C. for our Bicentennial
celebration.

Immigrants, mostly from Italy, established a fireworks industry in the
U.S. In 1981, when Conkling wrote his article, about two-thirds of the
fireworks used in this country were imported. He pointed out that since
former President Nixon reestablished trade with China, they've gained a
position as the world's foremost fireworks supplier.

Besides breathtaking displays, what do fireworks dump into the
environment? The composition of fireworks includes various nitrates and
ammonium compounds as oxidizers. They're not all mixed together, by the
way, because mixing the wrong components together can produce unstable,
dangerous compounds. Fuels can consist of aluminum, magnesium, charcoal,
sulfur or a multitude of other things.

Vivid colors are produced by the burning of metal compounds. For
example, red is produced by strontium nitrate or carbonate, green by
barium nitrate or chlorate, blue by copper compounds, white sparks by
magnesium or aluminum, and white smoke by a potassium nitrate/sulfur
mixture.

Obviously, there are nitrates and ammonia in fireworks. And, Doris White
of William Paterson College, points out that they act as fertilizers and
stimulate algal growth. Some of the metals are toxic, she explains.
White believes that "fireworks constitute a serious international
environmental problem that needs to be confronted."

Getting back to Tahoe, we already have more nitrates than our local
algae can use, so perhaps a bit more won't be noticed. The important
ingredient that limits or stimulates algal growth in Lake Tahoe is
phosphorus. And the use of phosphorus in fireworks seems to be rare.

White lists 53 groups of fireworks ingredients and products with varying
degrees of toxicity. She notes that the New Jersey Board of Health
supplied much of her information on fireworks "breakdown products and
how they can harm humans, animals, plants and the environment in
general." Perhaps they could affect aquatic life in Lake Tahoe.

But without a heck of a lot of research on the subject, we'll never
know. And since fireworks displays seem to be in the revered category of
Mom, apple pie and the American flag, I suspect that there isn't much
appetite to look very far into this problem.

Nonetheless, according to a letter written by our planning agency to an
inquirer, "TRPA, in cooperation with NDEP (Nevada Division of
Environmental Protection) and Lahontan, should research the potential
impacts of pyrotechnic displays on water quality." Harold Singer,
Executive Officer of the Lahontan Water Quality Control Board, explained
that it's the total loading of nutrients to the lake that's important.
If they find that fireworks do add nutrients, he added, the public will
have to decide if they want to trade fireworks displays for even
stricter controls on other nutrient sources -- like urban properties.