California regulators, having run out of other fun activities to ruin, have now set their sights on a favorite California pastime — beach bonfires — saying that they harm people’s health and contribute to global warming.
“One fire pit burning one night, a few hours, a couple bundles of wood, emits as much as one average diesel truck on the road today driving over 500 miles,” said Dr. Philip Fine, of the Southern California Air Quality Management District.
Fox News reports state regulators recommended banning open fires at the beach and removing hundreds of fire pits along the southern California coastline, which has angered beachgoers.
“I would be super bummed if they banned bonfires on the beach because it’s such a California thing,” said southern California resident Liz Corona. “It’s such a fun, social thing to do with friends. And, um, I feel like it’s not really doing any harm, so why would they ban them?”
However, some local Los Angeles County and Orange County official pushed back and in a revised proposal for regulating beach bonfires state regulators would allow beach fires to continue as long as they are “located at least 700 feet from the nearest residence,” “are at least 100 feet apart” and as long as air quality particles in coastal areas don’t exceed 100 on the Air Quality Index.
State officials would allow cities to ban bonfires immediately if they make a determination that they are causing a nuisance, and air quality regulators would “commence demonstration projects with one or more beach cities of clean-fueled fire pits using natural gas or propane fuel as a replacement for wood fires.”
California officials were directed towards targeting bonfires after receiving resistance from Hispanic lawmakers when regulators tried to regulate leaf-blowers and weed whackers.
Fox News reports: “Leaf-blowers and gas-powered weed wackers cause far more air pollution than beach bonfires, but California chose not to regulate them after Hispanic lawmakers protested on behalf of landscapers.”
“We’re just out here, having fun, hanging out, not doing anything bad,” said Cristi Valencia, a California beachgoer. “There’s so many other ways we can protect the environment, this just doesn’t seem like a very good one.”
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