There's a good chance you don't realize that here in Lancaster County we are surrounded by bad and wasteful outdoor lighting.

Unless you've been to a gas station so flooded with light that you forgot to turn on your lights when you drove away.

Unless your children have grown up not realizing there is a Milky Way in the night sky.

Unless you've been blinded by the glare of floodlights while driving.

Unless light from a neighbor's house, nearby building or streetlight has "trespassed" into your bedroom or living room.

Municipalities require plumbing, electrical and building ordinances, why not one to govern outdoor lighting? Without one, neighborhoods and communities are at the mercy of the lighting erected by developers, who may opt for the cheapest or inappropriate lighting.

With the new emphasis on conserving energy and saving money in a tight economy, now couldn't be a better time to cut down on bad lighting.

That's what the Pennsylvania Outdoor Lighting Council figures and that's why they invited every municipality in Lancaster County to a workshop recently in Lancaster County Central Park.

The goal is to get local officials to adopt reasonable outdoor lighting requirements in zoning and subdivision and land development ordinances — and enforce them.

The nonprofit group has sample ordinances and will work with municipalities to tailor regulations to their own needs.

The group also is looking for residents to step forward and champion better lighting controls in their communities.

"The only way to make a big difference is to make officials aware of different options and the benefits of proper lighting techniques," says "Cosmic" Mike Smith, astronomer at the North Museum of Natural History & Science.

"It's amazing how hard it is to find examples of good lighting in Lancaster."

So far, POLC (www.polcouncil.org), which is aided by the state Department of Environmental Protection, has persuaded 35 townships, boroughs or cities in Pennsylvania to adopt people- and earth-friendly lighting requirements. Many are in Chester County. None in Lancaster County, so far.

Manor Township, Mount Joy Borough, Ephrata Township, Columbia Borough, Penn Township and Warwick Township sent representatives. So did several local engineering consultants. Officials from communities in Cumberland, Chester and Montgomery Counties also attended.

One official, asked why he was there, said his municipality had a lighting ordinance but that "it's not worth anything."

"We are not anti-lighting, by any means," said Stan Stubbe of POLC. "We're only saying it should be where it belongs and there should not be too much of it."

Too few lights, whether your neighborhood streetlight, front-yard lamppost or nearby shopping center floodlights and security lighting, have simple shields that deflect light downward to what's meant to be lit.

The typical "barn light" mounted on many a building in Lancaster County is the poster child of bad lighting — on all night and radiating light in every direction.

Lights for practically any use can now be purchased with shields and almost any old light can be retrofitted. Here's two sources of earth-friendly outdoor lighting recommended by POLC: www.greenearthlighting.com and www.starrynightlights.com.

A rule of thumb: If you can't see the light bulb as you're walking, it's a friendly light.

Yet, even as technology produces brighter lights, they are often screwed into old fixtures.

And too many lights are left on all night for no real reason. POLC estimates 30 percent of outdoor lighting in Pennsylvania is wasted, squandering $100 million a year and using about 500,000 tons of coal.

That wastes energy mainly produced by polluting power plants, detracts from the community and turns a star-filled sky that many people want to be able to see into a glow.

POLC member Barry Johnson rued kids growing up without dark skies, "robbed of the inspiration of the ages." He compared the loss of dark skies to a mountain being denuded or a waterfall wiped out. "It's a loss of the natural beauty of Pennsylvania's landscape."

Glare from a crowd of lights can be an annoyance, detracting from a community's or neighborhood's appearance, to an outright safety concern, especially among the elderly, whose eyes are less tolerant of glare.

Jim McTish of the southeast regional office of DEP, told the group a typical dusk-to-dawn mercury vapor streetlight uses electricity over a year's time equivalent to burning 790 pounds of coal. That coal, in turn, emits pollutants that contribute to global warming, acid rain, smog and soot.

That one light would cost about $100 a year to light. When the caps on electricity rates come off next year, expect that cost to jump 30 to 70 percent, warned McTish.

 Add to the con list of unshielded lights the disruptive effects research shows lighting has on plants, nocturnal animals and migrating birds.

And even humans. Studies show bodies produce a cancer-fighting hormone known as melatonin at night. Exposure to significant light at night suppresses melatonin production.

More light does not mean better visibility. And POLC speakers said bright security lights can actually aid criminals by creating shadows and highlighting potential victims — a person making a cash withdrawal at a well-lit ATM machine, for example.

Manor Township Supervisor Allen Kreider, who attended the lighting workshop, said afterward that "we're getting a better handle on excessive lighting."

Noting that there have been lighting disputes in some neighborhoods, he said the township is trying to make neighborhood associations responsible for streetlights so they can determine the kind of lighting they want.

No one from Lancaster County attended the event. The county is responsible for the subdivision and land development plans for more than two dozen townships.

In 2006, the county adopted a dark sky/light trespass strategy as a tool in its new smart-growth management plan.

Lancaster city didn't attend the workshop either. But Charlotte Katzenmoyer, the city's public works director, says the city works with new developers and encourages light shields and ways to address light "spillover concerns."

New lighting going up downtown contains shields to keep light pointed down and not not out, she said.

The POLC is an offshoot of the International Dark Sky Association (www.darksky.org ) and many of its members are amateur astronomers.

POLC member Sandy Goodstein of Cornwall used to drive from southern New Jersey to Chester County to see stars. But he recognizes the outdoor lighting issue is far bigger than dark skies.

"Certainly, the energy thing is a big thing now," he says. "We think the higher electrical rates will be a boost for us."


Ad Crable can be reached at acrable@LNPnews.com or 481-6029. blog comments powered by Disqus