Seeing the light: Parks and Recreation departments nationally are updating their lighting systems to reflect the public's growing concern toward light pollution.

Ball fields and backyards can still co-exist, even as the "dark sky" movement casts its shadow on the nation's neighborhoods. Government officials are beginning to see the benefits to implementing energy-efficient lighting policies, as their constituents are beginning to see the light, as well.

Also, as an economic benefit to preserving the night sky energy-efficient lighting systems save money and reduce energy consumption. As politicians respond to the dark sky movement by requiring a lighting upgrade, parks and recreation department officials are opting for the low-cost lighting approach.

According to Nancy Clanton, past chairperson of the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America's Outdoor Environmental Committee, which writes lighting standards, there is a growing trend toward upgrading recreational parks' lighting systems.

Many of the nation's parks have incandescent or quartz lighting systems to illuminate their ball fields, but Clanton says the light is inefficient and produces too much of a glare. According to the color-rendering index (CRI), which measures the brightness of a light, quartz lamps are the brightest, with a 100 CRI.

Instead, Clanton suggests using metal halide-based lights that use less energy, last three times as long and reduce the glare often associated with the bright lights of incandescent bulbs. Clanton says the brightness of the bulb matters when vision is key, especially in sporting activities. Metal halide bulbs have about a 70 CRI.

"Whoever designs the lighting really needs to understand the neighborhood's concerns," Clanton says.

Lighting the Way

This month, Hillsborough County on Florida's Gulf Coast will overhaul its recreational facilities, investing $4.4 million over the next four years to update 127 ball fields and courts. Currently, all their ballparks have quartz or older style multi-vapor light fixtures with a life expectancy of 750 hours and an output per watt of 18 lumens (see the chart on p. 48). The short, wooden light poles cost $900 each, and last about 10 years. The parks and recreation department will replace the poles with $1,600 concrete posts expected to last three times longer than the wooden ones. The cost savings of upgrading the poles alone adds to more than $1.7 million. And the light fixtures will be metal halide-based, with a life expectancy of 16,000 hours and a per-watt output of 76-125 lumens, thus providing more light with less energy consumption.

"Ball field lighting is a major energy consumer," says Joel Jackson, Hillsborough County Parks, Recreation and Conservation Department's Planning, Design and Construction manager. "We're getting very aggressive with it."

Jackson has been working on updating the lighting system in Hillsborough County for the past eight years. Part of the argument he made to the budgeting office involved helping the public keep its night skies intact. Many of the ball fields in Hillsborough County are embedded in residential neighborhoods and the current lighting systems flood the backyards and side streets with unwanted light pollution. Because of the dilapidated condition of the wooden poles, which Jackson argued was the main reason for the light trespassing, the 2003-2004 fiscal year would be a good time to update the system.

"You lose a lot of light because of" spill," Jackson says. "Parks departments have a major responsibility to the environment."

When Jackson attended public meetings to discuss tire issue, he realized if he wanted the public to approve the project, talking about energy efficiency was not the right approach, he says.

"They don't want to hear about making things more efficient," he says, adding that the public cared more for hearing about new facilities being built than updating existing ones.

So Jackson did an asset analysis of parks and recreation facilities and discovered that the department had $300 million in property, He reasoned to the public that if it would allow the county to take just one percent of the total investment ($3 million) toward maintenance and spend the rest of the department's $42 million budget on building and enhancing new facilities, the public would save money in the long run and still have new playgrounds, ball fields and community centers to use.

As a result of the enhancements, Hillsborough County will save an estimated $7.7 million in annual cost, and have less maintenance overall, says Chris Postiglone, one of the project managers who worked on the proposal.

Slowly but Surely

The people of Hillsborough County may seem light years ahead of their time. While other areas around the country recognize the need for such enhancements, those governments would rather upgrade their systems on an as-needed basis.

Such is the case in the city of Bellingham, Wash., which last year spent almost half a million dollars upgrading one of its ballparks--Civic Field.

The stadium was built in 1961 for use by three area high schools and the local university. Its lighting system was fitted with quartz lamps, which were no longer dependable, consumed large amounts of energy and were expensive to maintain, officials say. Because the stadium is located within a residential neighborhood, its lights bothered area homes, and complaints were constantly generated from the public.

Marvin Harris, who manages Bellingham's Parks and Recreation Department, worked with a lighting consultant to determine what type of lighting fixtures he should purchase to effectively reduce the city's energy use, save money and prevent light pollution.

The project entailed replacing two of the four steel poles, changing all 70 of the light fixtures, adding 14 new ones, updating the electrical wiring, installing a dimming system and heightening the poles to prevent unwanted light.

By switching from quartz lamps to metal-halide lights, the parks and recreation department reduced its energy consumption by 40 percent.

"The side benefit is we have a more efficient system, but also that we saved the night sky," Harris says.

Harris says he received virtually no objection from the surrounding community or the council. "The city council said if you're going to do it, let's do it right and make it as user-friendly as possible."

The success of the Civic Field project has prompted the city council to begin discussions on updating its other ball fields. Harris says the upgrades will be slow but eventual. (The Bellingham Parks and Recreation Department oversees 100 parks and has 3,500 acres of park land.)

Legislative Power

While Bellingham, "Wash., is taking a slower approach than Hillsborough County in Florida, there are counties that are moving faster on the dark sky initiative, choosing to pass strict light ordinances to enable these energy-efficient upgrades to occur sooner.

Boulder, Colo., passed a light ordinance in July requiring all city-owned property and private lands to implement uniform lighting systems within 15 years--a measure that has yet to be recognized by all cities in the nation.

"We're just one of the first to deal with all the issues," says Gary Kretschmer, senior planner for Boulder and co-author of the lighting ordinance.

Kretschmer says city officials wanted to reduce overall light pollution in Boulder's sky, "when the scientific community started showing us what we looked like from space. [See the map on p. 48.] That's all wasted energy."

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Kretschmer consulted with Clanton, who is a registered engineering consultant headquartered in Boulder. The task took one and one-half years to complete.

What followed was a massive rewrite of the city's light ordinance, which will require the installation of induction and/or metal-halide fixtures for all city-owned property. No high-pressure sodium lamps will be allowed for recreational facilities or any other public areas.

Reducing the glare and amount of light spilling onto area homes was also important to the city, so specific shields will be installed on all light fixtures and the glare will be reduced once the metal-halide and induction lights replace the older fixtures.

"We're jumping on the bandwagon and just being more detailed that other communities haven't dealt with yet," Kretschmer says.

Hundreds of hours of research have gone into the planning and design of the new lighting systems for all the communities that are willing to exchange their lights for more efficient illuminations. Jackson in Florida warns that if community leaders plan to undergo these changes, they better do their homework. Otherwise, they might do more harm than good, Jackson says.

"There are very aggressive people selling lighting fixtures," he says. "If you don't know anything about [lighting], they will tell you anything you want to hear."

Bright Lights, Big City
Knowing what type of bulb best fits your needs doesn't require a degree
in engineering. Just follow these guidelines to familiarize yourself
with what you want in a lighting system.

                                      Energy
Lamp            Color                 Efficiency       Life
Type            Rendition             (lumens/watt)   (hours)

Incandescent    100                   10-20           750-2,000
                renders colors well
                with emphasis on
                warmer tones
Induction       86                    65-72           100,000
                cool white light;
                renders colors well
Metal Halide    70                    75-125         15,000
                white light;
                renders colors well
High-Pressure   21                    75-130         20,000
Sodium          golden cast

Lamp            Recommended
Type            Uses

Incandescent    pedestrian areas; where natural
                color rendition is important
Induction       general area lighting in public
                areas; parking lots
Metal Halide    general area lighting in public
                areas; sports complexes
High-Pressure   primary and secondary roadway
Sodium          and parking lot lighting

Source: Air Force Center for Environmental Excellence; Philips Lighting
Company

Don't forget to do your homework before making the investment.

Here are some Web sites to visit:

New Buildings Institute www.newbuildings.org

International Dark Sky Association www.darksky.org

Illuminating Engineering Society of North America www.iesna.org

Maya Avrasin is the editorial assistant for Parks & Recreation. She can be reached at [e-mail].