According to the International Dark Sky Association, called IDA, an estimated 80 percent of the world’s population can no longer see the Milky Way from their backyards because of light pollution. It’s a problem the association wants to fix.
The University of Utah’s South Physics Observatory director, Paul Ricketts, says dark skies are good for more than stargazing. Light pollution negatively impacts migratory patterns of birds as well nighttime hunters such as mountain lions. Ricketts says it also negatively impacts human health.
“There are some human health concerns where if you're basically if you're not getting enough sleep, because you have lights, flooding into your window, from streetlights or neighbor’s lights, or even your own lights, you're not getting as much sleep as you need. And that could be causing things like heart issues later on, I recently read a paper where light pollution could be potentially keeping you from sleeping well enough. And it can contribute to your chance of getting things like diabetes.”
Last year, Park City amended its outdoor lighting code, requiring new construction outdoor lighting be dark sky compliant. That means outdoor lights must be 3,000 degrees Kelvin or less, and outdoor lighting is fully shielded so that no light shines upwards.
According to Rebecca Ward, Assistant Planning Director for Park City Municipal, some retrofits have already occurred. Last year, the Recreation Department, working with University of Utah and the Sustainability and Planning Department, invested nearly $600,000 to replace and upgrade the field lights at the Park City Sports Complex in Quinn’s Junction. The new LED lights significantly reduce off-site glare to 150 feet from the field and can be scheduled and controlled remotely.
Summit County Planner Ray Milliner says the county adopted similar ordinances to Park City by following the International Dark Sky Association’s guidelines by February 2024. He says if residents or businesses haven’t changed lighting by then, people can file complaints.
“We’ve got quite a few people who are probably sitting there waiting for the date to come so they can complain about certain lights, and then the enforcement officer will go out and say, Dude, you gotta change this and work through them that way. We’ve got to start working with our PR team to make sure the word gets out to make sure they know the date is coming and if they have out of county compliance lights they need to get them changed.”
Big parks in the area like Woodward and UOP are businesses that produce a lot of light, Milliner says that despite what people may think, Woodward is compliant.
“The problem that Woodward is that they're shining the lights down onto the snow, which is a reflective surface. If they turn them on in the summer when there's you know, no snow the light, it would be a lot less light I but they technically do comply with the code. I know everybody's like, oh, are you kidding me, but it's true they do is that snow reflects so that the down direction and the shielding and all that business don't have much effect to dampen the light.”
Milliner says UOP lights haven’t been reviewed regarding their compliance and that they were put up before there was a county lighting code. He would not be surprised if UOP gets many complaints once the deadline passes.
According to the IDA, Utah has more dark sky parks than anywhere in the world. Ricketts says with the rising popularity of stargazers, it has helped put Utah on the map and bring awareness to the importance of the issue.
There are several events going on to celebrate Dark Skies week - one of them is happening at East Canyon on May 7th. It includes telescope training, astrophotography workshop and a star party.
For more information on dark skies events, please visit http://Utah.darksky.ngo
