Sequim moves to take back night sky
Pat Clark, left, and city planner Joe Irvin hope to see more lights like this full-cutoff Euro Tech lamp installed in Sequim. For three years, Clark has been asking Sequim’s leaders to address the problem of light pollution; the City Council is now considering a resolution that would require full-cutoff streetlights in new subdivisions. -- Photo by Diane Urbani de la Paz/Peninsula Daily News
By Diane Urbani de la Paz, Peninsula Daily News
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And though it's too early to call Pat Clark victorious, he feels neither defeated nor frustrated.
Clark, 59, a retired Teamsters Union negotiator, has been urging the Sequim City Council to adopt a "dark skies" resolution that, to his mind, could save the moon, the stars — and people's privacy and health.
On Monday, some 37 months after Clark first addressed the Sequim City Council on the problem of light pollution, he gave the members a new 40-page report on the topic — and basked in the mild glow of city planner Joe Irvin's draft of a resolution that could help bring back black.
"It's a lot to read, I know, so take your time," Clark wrote on his report's cover sheet.
"It took time to lose the night sky, and it will take some time to take it back."
Glare and glow from street lamps and other lights has flooded the world's urban places, Clark noted, and his city is just one example.
Just a mile from downtown Sequim, "you can read a newspaper on a foggy night," he said.
Full cutoff lights
During Monday's council study session, Irvin offered Clark a long-awaited response: a "dark skies" resolution that would require developers to install what are called "full cutoff" streetlights in new subdivisions.
If the council adopts the new rules, Sequim would be a pioneer on the North Olympic Peninsula.
No other cities in the region mandate full cutoff lamps.
The Sequim City Council will discuss the proposed dark sky resolution at its Sept. 8 meeting.
The session will start at 6 p.m. in the Transit Center, 190 W. Cedar St.
Port Townsend is in the process of replacing its street lights with lower-wattage bulbs, but that's an energy-saving measure, said Public Works Director Ken Clow.
Neither Port Angeles nor Forks have enacted dark-sky measures.
The typical Sequim street lamp is what's known as a Nevada-style light, which can spew glare up and out — the opposite of the Euro Tech brand full cutoff lights Irvin has been looking at.
The Euro Tech lamps are bright, but they have wide hoods that send light downward, to illuminate pavement and people, not sky and neighbors' bedrooms.
Sequim is lighted by scores of Nevada-style lamps, Irvin said.
Take the commercial core: There are 56 on Washington Street from River Road to Brown Road and 51 on Sequim Avenue from Hammond to Old Olympic Highway.
But now, Irvin added proudly, the town has one Euro Tech beacon, on the corner of Happy View Lane and South Seventh Avenue.
The Euro-Tech company lent Sequim the light as a sample.
Were the city were to buy the bulb, fixture and pole, they would cost $2,399 — while the Nevada-style lights sets cost $2,200 each, Irvin said.
Developers would probably enjoy volume discounts on the Euro Tech lamps, he added.
To Clark, these lights are worth it.
'Light trespass'
He began researching the effects of too much nighttime glow back in 2005, when he was primarily worried about "light trespass," or the spill-over of street, yard and porch lights into neighboring homes.
Then he found many studies — from Harvard, the Centers for Disease Control and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle among other institutions — showing that too much nighttime light inhibits melatonin, a hormone that suppresses cancer cells and boosts immunity.
Cancer rates were higher than average among people who work night shifts, or leave night lights on, or stay up too late reading, working or both.
So to Clark, light pollution is not just a matter of aesthetics.
The City Council didn't argue with Clark's research.
But City Council member Walt Schubert asked Police Chief Robert Spinks how well the new type of streetlights would help deter crime.
Spinks replied that the Euro Tech lamps are effective since they shine light downward, where the police can use it.
Mayor Laura Dubois asked Irvin whether the dark skies resolution will apply to commercial lighting, which she said is sometimes "offensive" and "glaring."
Irvin said that "neighborhood commercial nodes," small shopping centers in residential areas, would be required to use the full-cutoff lights.
Dubois added that "we need to educate our citizens about proper lighting. More is not always better . . . Some neighbors put up such a bright light that creates such a glare, you can't see their front door," so an intruder could approach unseen.
Darker skies
Irvin, meantime, believes darker nights could some day fall over Sequim.
"Let's say the Burrowes property [off South Sequim Avenue] comes up for development again. I would highly recommend these Euro-Tech lights.
"And even with infill development downtown, if [a builder] is going to improve a parking lot, I will recommend they use these lights."
What about the new City Hall and police station? If and when sites are found, might they be gently lighted — or flooded?
"Maybe down the road, dark-sky grants will become available," Irvin said. Some day or night, "I could see the Euro Tech lighting outnumbering the Nevada style."
Clark shares that outlook.
"I'm in this for the long haul," he said.
"My goal is in 10 years, when Sequim has double or triple the population we have now, we'll be able to say it's darker," than it was in 2008.
________
Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-681-2391 or diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
Last modified: August 22. 2008 9:00PM