Back to Saving Maui's Starry Night Skies
February 28, 1999
The next time you see that orange night-time glow above Kihei or Kahului, think of Mayor Apana's hiring freeze... The County is spending around $150,000 a year for that glow, which is from poorly designed street lights that waste 30% of their energy lighting up the sky. If Mayor Apana's predecessors had been smart and required that all street lights be fully shielded (so all the light goes to the street, not upward), and adopted low-pressure sodium bulbs, the county would be saving some $150,000 per year on electricity (that's from 3000 street lights * 100 watts * 10 hours/days * 365 days/year * $0.14/KWH). And the stunning beauty of Maui's starry nights would no longer be blotted out by light pollution. Fortunately, the County has begun to use shielded lights in its new developments (e.g the Kihei Aquatic Center). The Subdivision Standards Committee is recommending these new standards. But even better news is that the existing street lights can be retrofit with fully shielded luminaires and low-pressure sodium bulbs, and this would pay for itself in less than three years by the electricity saved. The Big Island has already figured out this equation, as have many mainland communities. Mayor Apana and the County Council should waste no time in enacting light-pollution standards, and a retrofit program for existing street lights. It will stop this wasted taxpayer's expense, reduce the demand on MECO's generators, and give Maui back its starry nights skies again.
Dr. Lee Altenberg