El Paso County Not Banning Fireworks At This Time

Without a drop of rain in sight and a record 110th day and counting without precipitation likely on the way anytime soon, ABC-7 spoke with County Judge Veronica Escobar about the possibility the County will ban the sale of aerial fireworks this year.

Escobar pointed out that the fireworks industry cannot begin selling products until after June 25th, still more than a month away. And she said the deadline for setting the ban on the sale of aerial fireworks is no later than June 15th.

Escobar said she expects that either she or the County Attorney’s office will place an item on the agenda before then to move for the ban.

Unless, of course, there is a lot of rain between now and then.

She said she understands the fireworks industry is watching and waiting, but so too are businesses and residents out in the county who have to deal with a huge cleanup, year after year.

“What we normally do is wait up until the very end, usually because we’re hoping we meet the drought conditions,” Escobar said, “not that we have a drought per se, but that we meet the indicator so we can ban them, because it’s kind of a rigid indicator. But we have already met it.”

ABC-7 also asked the County Judge today about any kind of help or disaster declaration for farmers out in the county who are dealing with the drought. She said she was not aware of any kind of designation for agriculture, but promised that she would look into it.