East Hampton Town Officials Reject Initial Montauk Yacht Club Fireworks Pitch

East Hampton Town officials have shot down plans by the Montauk Yacht Club to hold a fireworks show on Lake Montauk this year to mark Independence Day, citing concerns about environmental impacts and logistics.

The yacht club filed a mass gathering permit application about two weeks ago to host a July 2 fireworks show and barbecue, on behalf of one of its members, according to the 
yacht club’s general manager, Lloyd Van Horn. But town officials vetted the application and decided it should not move forward, Supervisor Bill Wilkinson said.

“We shouldn’t allow it because, as you know, we are very, very concerned about the aquaculture of Lake Montauk, and the Lake Montauk Watershed Committee has renewed their meetings,” Mr. Wilkinson said. “This type of disturbance I didn’t feel was necessarily complementing the work they are doing with the watershed committee.”

This spring, East Hampton Town reconvened a committee charged with overseeing an environmental study of Lake Montauk. Some Montauk residents have expressed concerns in recent years about the water quality in the lake and its effects on marine life there.

If the show had been approved, the fireworks would have been fired from two barges on the lake, according to Mr. Wilkinson, and the event would have included an accompanying barbecue. Mr. Wilkinson said he was worried the fireworks show could result in contaminants entering the lake.

At a work session on Tuesday, Mr. Wilkinson said the yacht club might try to move the event to state waters off Gin Beach, in the Block Island Sound. When reached after the work session Tuesday, Mr. Van Horn said the event was now being handled by Fireworks by Grucci, and he did not know the details of the new plan.

The move would not address all the traffic and safety concerns he and other officials had regarding the yacht club’s original application, Mr. Wilkinson said. Town Police Chief Ed Ecker had concerns about traffic and parking, according to Mr. Wilkinson, who added that a fireworks show in the same area a few years ago caused problems with traffic control on East Lake Drive and near Gin Beach.

Furthermore, Mr. Wilkinson pointed out, the Devon Yacht Club in Amagansett and the Sag Harbor Yacht Club will already be hosting fireworks shows on July 2. “My police are spread out very, very thin on other mass gatherings on that particular weekend,” he said.

Chief Fire Marshal David Browne also had safety concerns about the yacht club loading fireworks over town docks on Lake Montauk, according to Mr. Wilkinson, but he noted that if the yacht club moves the fireworks show to Block Island Sound, it would not use the town docks.

Mr. Wilkinson also pointed out that endangered piping plovers are nesting at Gin Beach this summer.