The Maui County Council’s Public Works Committee will meet at 9 a.m. today to consider establishing an outdoor lighting standards ordinance based on a switch from standard outdoor fixtures to low-pressure sodium lights.
The objections to the low-pressure sodium lights, which have been used without problems on the Big Island for 20 years, has to do with the cost of converting existing lights and the yellow color of the sodium lights.
For individuals who have been raised with their pupils constricted to pinholes by bright white light, the color of the sodium lights is ugly. Opponents maintain that the sodium lights make it difficult to see, and even the Maui Police Department has expressed concerns about traffic safety – as if accidents don’t happen in the daytime – and the ability of crime witnesses to describe perpetrators – as if they give any better descriptions in sunlight.
The principal sources of lights that wipe out the stars are road illumination, sports fields and big resorts. It is easy to stand in Kula and see the Kahului Airport, the stretch of Hana Highway from Haleakala into town, the War Memorial Complex in addition to every residential area. The bright lights turn into a glowing blanket when there’s low cloud cover.
The benefits of the low-pressure sodium lights along with shielding lights so they put the light where it’s needed instead of scattering it are economic and environmental. The continued proliferation of sky-drowning ground light affects Haleakala as an observatory site. Bright white lights, including unnecessary floodlights at oceanside resorts, fatally confuse native birds and turtle hatchlings, both of which use reflected moonlight to find their way to and from the sea.
There is no real reason to object to the low-pressure sodium lights, unless you don’t like any kind of change, tend to be paranoid about crime and traffic, and think spending money to protect the environment and fostering Maui’s reputation for being romantic is a waste of cash.