An Independence Day fireworks display at Mount Rushmore National Memorial could expose spectators to Covid-19 as well as toxic fumes from the explosions/Kurt Repanshek file
While Big Bend National Park closed Thursday due to a confirmed case of Covid-19 within the park, other parks are moving carefully in granting visitors access, and at least one concessionaire is requiring customers to wear facemasks, an Independence Day celebration at Mount Rushmore National Memorial will not require face masks or social distancing.
The event prompted by the Trump administration and which will feature President Trump in attendance also comes two days after a study stated that spectators could be exposed to toxic emissions from the metals used to give fireworks their brilliant colors.
Upwards of 7,500 spectators are expected for the spectacle, which will be held Friday night, July 3. South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem has said face masks will be available for those who want them, but social distancing won't be enforced.
On Wednesday, Xanterra Travel Collection, which operates lodges and other concessions in and around Yellowstone, Glacier, Grand Canyon, Death Valley, Rocky Mountain, and Zion national parks, as well as at Mount Rushmore, announced that it would require "all visitors to wear face coverings while in the indoor public areas of our facilities and in outdoor areas where proper distancing is not possible. These areas include, but are not limited to lobbies, hallways, gift shops, restaurants, offices, indoor/outdoor queueing lines, and sightseeing vehicles and boats."
The National Park Service has not taken a hard stance on the wearing of face masks, though many parks have encouraged visitors to wear them if they can't practice social distancing. At Golden Gate National Recreation Area, officials said "federal, state and local health authorities are were discourging any activities that would draw large crowds" beause of the coronavirus pandemic.
The fireworks display over the carved faces of Presidents George Washington, Theodore Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson comes 11 years after they were halted because of concerns they might spark wildfires in the surrounding Black Hills National Forest and the Norbeck Wildlife Preserve.
Fire danger in those areas surrounding Mount Rushmore currently is judged to be "moderate."
The environmental assessment prepared on the question of whether the fireworks display could safely return to the memorial noted a number of adverse effects it would create, but dismissed them as short-term.
Air Quality IssuesAir quality may be affected by emissions from the vehicles of visitors, fireworks contractors, and NPS and event partners before, during, and after the event. These impacts would be no greater than, and possibly less than, normal memorial operations because of the limited number of visitors on that day compared to other summer days. There may be air quality impacts from the potential use of helicopters for event staging and teardown, and by military aircraft from a potential flyover. These impacts would be a negligible addition to regular aircraft traffic in the region. Air quality could also be affected by smoke from the fireworks display; however, these effects are expected to be short-term and negligible and smoke would be expected to dissipate soon after the event.
Impacts to threatened or endangered species
The northern long-eared bat (Myotis septentrionalis) is listed as threatened under the ESA and is present at the memorial. The bat could be subject to fireworks and aircraft noise, and could occur in areas subject to fire risk. ...However, wildfire effects are temporary, of low probability, and do not constitute incidental or purposeful take, as defined in the 2016 USFWS Programmatic Biological Opinion for the northern long-eared bat (USFWS 2016). The bats are sensitive to acoustics, but are likely to be in roosts and remain sheltered during the event.
Impacts to wilderness quality
There is no designated Wilderness within the boundaries of the memorial, but the designated USFS Black Elk Wilderness lies to the west of the memorial. No planned activities would occur in designated Wilderness under the preferred alternative (see Section 2.1, Alternative 1); however, the fireworks event may affect Wilderness qualities. The five qualities of Wilderness character, as defined in the Wilderness Act of 1964, are: (1) untrammeled; (2) undeveloped; (3) natural; (4) offers outstanding opportunities for solitude or primitive and unconfined recreation; and (5) other features of scientific, educational, scenic, or historical value. Of these, the preferred alternative may result in temporary impacts on opportunities for solitude from the fireworks event. Visitors camping or recreating in the Black Elk Wilderness may experience visual and acoustic disturbances from the event; however, these disturbances would last for 15 to 30 minutes. The NPS would minimize potential adverse impacts on the Wilderness experience for visitors by posting the event in advance.
While a 2016 study by the U.S. Geological Survey concluded that surface and groundwater at Mount Rushmore were probably polluted with a chemical common to rocket fuels and explosives by past fireworks display, the EA prepared for this year's event played down the threat of additional perchlorate contamination by noting the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has been considering a move to bump up the allowable amount of the chemical in drinking water by more than three times, from 15 microgrms per liter to 56 micrograms per liter.
Perchlorate has been found to interfere with the function of the human thyroid gland.
A study released Wednesday in the journal Particle and Fibre Toxicology pointed out that the lead, copper, titanium, strontium, and other "toxins" that give fireworks their vibrant colors "also damage human cells and animal lungs."
"While many are careful to protect themselves from injury from explosions, our results suggest that inhaling firework smoke may cause longer-term damage, a risk that has been largely ignored," said Terry Gordon, PhD, a professor in the Department of Environmental Medicine at NYU Langone Health who was the study's senior author.
"Although people are only exposed to these substances for a short time each year, they are much more toxic than the pollutants we breathe every day," added Gordon.
Comments
What about the fireworks in DC, and New york? Are they hazardous also, or just those in S Dakota?
NPS is officially an arm of the Trump re-election campaign and it is so embarrassing to be associated with this once proud agency.
Our goverment is suppose to lead us not divide us. Nothing good will come from these actions. Very disappointed our administration to use (once again) the NPS as a platform for it's personal political policies. United (not divided) States of America...
Fireworks contribute to fires and pollution everywhere. https://www.forbes.com/sites/grrlscientist/2019/12/31/festive-fireworks-...'
John Perreault, as some of our fellow commenters like to remind us, we need to avoid falling into "Trump Derangement Syndrome" over these current events. It's really not the fault of "our government" in any broad sense. It's really not Trump or even all of "this administration" either. The problem truly is the GOP, the republican party; it's been the GOP for over a hundred years; and it would be a tragic mistake to think that just getting rid of Trump, while leaving the rest of the GOP standing, will solve anything.
If you look back to the beginning of the 20th century, the GOP had come to cater exclusively to the corpulent rich; the voters knew it; and the GOP was in political trouble. So, they lured a smart, robust, active, well meaning, young politician to run as their candidate for vice president, fully intending to keep him powerless in that vice president role, and that strategy enabled them to win again. However, when President McKinley turned out to be so distasteful that he was almost immediately assassinated, Theodore Roosevelt became president, the only genuinely progressive GOP president in over a century. But, as soon as Roosevelt left office, the GOP went right back to their old ways and used every dirty trick in the book to keep Roosevelt from coming back in to put things right again, America's loss.
When, after staggering through the First World War, Woodrow Wilson tried to reduce the risk of future wars by organizing the League of Nations, pretty much his only truly progressive move, the GOP blocked his efforts and brought in three stooges to orchestrate a draconian orgy of profiteering off reparations, which ultimately led to the next world war. Their first stooge was Harding, the 20th century's most corrupt president; their second was Coolidge, dumb enough, inarticulate enough, and incompetent enough to be a 20th century version of Mike Pence; and the third was Hoover, whose proclivity for pretentious narcissism almost matched Trump's and led us into the Great Depression.
After FDR and Truman got us through the Second World War and the Korean Conflict, fighting off GOP backbiting every step of the way, the GOP had to pull another Theodore Roosevelt trick in order to return to power. But, while Eisenhower focused on continuing his role as allied military commander and ably presided over a necessary boosting of America's strategic capability to confront the Soviets, the GOP was busy bringing forth their next three stooges. Those stooges, Richard Nixon, Joe McCarthy, and their constantly scheming mentor, the freakishly twisted Roy Cohn, were responsible for orchestrating the most damaging display of political perversion since Andrew Jackson, all on the GOP's watch.
Make no mistake. Long after Tailgunner Joe was gone, it was the GOP that continued to nurture the evils of McCarthyism, as Cohn's perverse influence went on to shape Goldwater, Quayle, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Barr, Trump, Stone, and so many others. That perverse influence ultimately brought Nixon into power and we know how that story ended. But, it wasn't just a Nixon thing. We need to remember Agnew, "Bebe" Rebozo, the burglars, and the rest of the GOP tag team from that era, all the villainy money could buy.
Ronald Reagan, an actor adept at posing on screen as something between John Wayne and Roy Rodgers, was recruited and trained by the GOP to "act" as our president while the GOP used national security as a ruse to hurriedly raid the treasury one last time before the Soviets collapsed on their own. When the Iran-Contra scandal and the associated cocaine shipments out of Central America surfaced, it was the GOP that got Reagan off on a senility plea to buy his silence and another up and coming GOP hack, Barr, who was there to, once the heat died down, get the rest of the GOP mob pardoned.
And, it's not just ancient history. Trump wasn't even there for the election in Florida in November of 2000; if he was, he was only there to party with Epstein. No, that fraudulent election was all on the GOP and the Bush family and their minions. And, so many of those people are still with us.
So, it's not just Trump or "this administration" that's the problem and we shouldn't lose sight of that. If we do and aren't careful and resolute in putting an end to all of it once and for all, Trumpism and the judges that GOP hitman Mitch McConnell has put on the bench will continue the pattern.
Well now that our President has delivered that speech I hope the powers that be feel good about what he has now done to our national shrines. NPS was used tonight. I wish we had leaders who would speak out because that waste of tax payer dollars that I witnessed tonight is worthy of a few investigations. I hope the Trump Campaign is paying the bill because that is all it was and no one even cares to disguise it as anything more that a pure campaign speech filled with hate.
How was this event not a violation of the Hatch Act?
The Hatch Act establishes general provisions governing participation in political activities by executive branch employees (5 CFR 734.101). The Hatch Act also prohibits political activity "in any room or building occupied in the discharge of official duties." Outdoor political activities held at NPS units including, but not limited to, rallies, speeches, press conferences, and photo-ops that use recognizable NPS resources as a backdrop may be permitted if otherwise consistent with NPS regulations. NPS employees may provide logistical support or other services to permitted political events. Employees may actively participate in a permitted event only when off duty and in civilian clothes so to not imply NPS endorsement of the event.
We basically watched an NPS event, funded by our tax payer dollars, turn into a MAGA rally in front of our eyes. This is a disgrace. Horace Albright threatened to resign over the potential use and damage of parks in the name of national defense during WWI. My how the NPS has fallen!
If anyone out there now thinks it isn't important to have a Senate confirmed Director, you are sadly mistaken.
Nicely said, I am glad you agree, a little long winded but I see we are on the same page. Thank you!