CORPUS CHRISTI — Nueces County Commissioners Court Wednesday passed a resolution banning fireworks for July. The ban means selling, detonating or igniting most aerial fireworks in the unincorporated areas of Nueces County is a class C misdemeanor.
It is also against the law to use fireworks in Corpus Christi city limits.
The court recognized that the area has received some rain, but it still remains too dry. This is the 3rd consecutive year the county has instituted the ban in time for the July and December fireworks season.
Under a law passed in 2007, counties must declare the fireworks ban earlier than normal burn bans. Fireworks dealers wanted the law because late-breaking burn bans, instituted close to peak season, often left them with piles of inventory they could not legally sell. The deadline to do so is June 15.
Counties do not have the ability to regulate fireworks year-round under Texas law, and can only do so during July and December fireworks seasons, according to Tyner Little, executive assistant to the commissioners court. That means that someone who wanted to shoot off rockets in October could do so, no matter what the conditions.
Not all counties with burn bans can institute a burn ban on fireworks. Counties must be particularly dry to be allowed to ban them.