Aloha Climate Action, Resilience and Environment Committee:
My name is Jeff Bagshaw and I am in strong support of Bill 21, CD2.
Kudos to this committee and the Council for working on this difficult and detailed bill. You’ve worked through many details and iterations because this is about creating “smart-lighting” instead of over-lighting. Creating good governance isn’t always easy. One concern opponents have raised are the costs of conversion.
It’s easy to calculate those dollars, but what is more difficult to quantify are environmental services we expect to be free, even to make us money. When the issue of conversion costs are raised, please compare those to the following.
Freshwater is the first: I’ve previously testified how seabirds are a vital link in nutrient cycling for native forests and shrublands. We get our freshwater from our forests. It may flow in streams, be stored in ponds or come from aquifers and wells, but it is first captured in our native forests. To replace the work of seabirds evenly distributing nutrients in the form of their guano, to keep forests healthy and functioning would require hundreds of thousands of dollars in helicopter time to foliar-spray our native forests. Or it would take thousands of people-hours annually, hiking through the forests with heavy packs, hand-spreading fertilizers. And there are many studies showing how those nutrients even feed our reefs in the right amounts and chemical compositions, to keep corals producing fish for food.
We talk about food-security often, but water-security is even more basic unless we’re willing to have a future of tankers delivering fresh water to our docks, we have to take care of all the links in the chain that keeps our waters flowing, now.
Which leads to another environmental service we capitalize on for free: reef fish and sea turtles. The Hawaii Visitor Bureau’s 2020 Annual Visitor Satisfaction and Activity Survey once again states that roughly 60% of visitors to Maui report they snorkeled or came to Maui specifically to snorkel. The survey doesn’t report one thing I can share anecdotally. First time visitors to `Ahihi- Kina`u Natural Area Reserve will ask me about 30-40% of the time: “Can we see turtles here?” right after “Can we see fish here?” Look at souvenirs sold through any retail outlet large or small. What is one of the top five iconic creatures on tee shirts, stickers, stuffed toys, keychains… sea turtles. How many dollars in profits can be attributed to the presence of these animals and visitors wanting to remember or hope for an experience? As others have testified, over- and badly designed lighting affects all reef animals including fish and turtles.
Modern astronomers can give estimates of the values of dark skies for professional sky-watching, and there are at least a dozen private tour-companies that include star watching in their list of activities/services they provide, which can again, equate to environmental aspects we capitalize on for free. In fact, a photo exhibit celebrating the beauty of Hawaiian night skies opens at the Schafer Gallery on Sept 1st. But an incalculable benefit is the ability for residents to be able to look at up and experience seeing stars used in traditional navigation as was done generations ago, and Nainoa Thompson of course used stars, but also relied on seabirds in the last hours of his first voyage as a navigator to Tahiti. The modern definition of a cultural landscape goes beyond archeological features – it includes being able to experience a landscape as our ancestors did to hear seabirds call in the night. “Honolulu City Lights” is a lovely song, but rewriting those lyrics to become “Kahului City Lights” would be a sad cultural replacement for the loss of seabirds and the other pieces of the environmental chorus we are losing with in-action.
The latest estimates for sea level rise say we will lose 26-40% of the nesting habitats for seabirds in Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument, where 96% of the world’s Laysan Albatross currently nest, a species that led early navigators here, which is unique to our islands. We have to start now in preparing for those climate refugees to move back to the lower eight Hawaiian islands. We can make room for them, we can invest in and pay for the free resources we have capitalized on for many years. Its time to pay that price, to take back the night.
Jeff Bagshaw
Communications and Outreach Specialist
State of Hawaii, Division of Forestry and Wildlife, Maui Nui Branch
Jeff.w.bagshaw@hawaii.gov
(808)264-7891
Kelly Takaya King
Committee Chair, Climate Action, Resilience and Environment Committee
Council of the County of Maui
Via email: CARE.committee@mauicounty.us
Testimony Bill 21 CD1, FD1 (2022)
Dear Councilmember King and members of the Committee,
I am the President of Pacific Rim Concepts LLC, and the meeting planner of the Pacific Islands Environment Conference for the Environmental Protection Agency Region 9, Hawaii Conservation Conference, World Conservation Conference for the International Union of Conservation for Nature 2016, Hawaii Energy, and other similar organizations and events, we are amongst those who study and protect the creatures and habitat, and the species.
Sure a cry from a select few, is not the majority. And a total ban is extreme.
Lighting for homes provides safety and security.
Lighting for special events also provide safety and are not designed to harm the nature species. These event lights are temporary installations.
Recognizing the harm that certain lights and installations have on our wildlife; there can be solutions for future equipment design for safe installation and protection for both animal and human enjoyment. Allow for those collaborations and products to be created before instituting a total ban on lights.
I urge you to table this bill as it is harmful for the protection and safety of our community, and people.
Thank you for your service.
Lee-Ann Choy
Pacific Rim Concepts LLC
45-520 Kamooalii Street
Kaneohe, HI 96744
Tel. 808-864-9812
Fax. 1-866-211-3427
Email: lee-ann@pacificrimconcepts.com
Aloha Chair King and Committee members,
I strongly support CARE 74, Bill 21.
I appreciate the time and consideration that has been given to everyone's concerns and it appears that those concerns have been addressed. It's time to move this legislation forward to secure the future for our precious seabirds and honu. I want to know that these wild and special residents of Maui County are protected for my grandchildren and their grandchildren.
Please support this Bill.
Mahalo,
Ms. Barbara Barry
Dear Committee Members;
Our Company does lighting for Concerts, Television, Conventions & Special Events
throughout the Hawaiian Islands.
I am duly concerned that the bill before you, if passed in it’s present state, will impact
all kinds of events in a vast number of venues.
There should be exemptions made available for temporary events.
Modern equipment utilized by the entertainment industry has strikingly reduced the
electrical power consumption required for such events.
Stage fixtures have powerful and dramatic use for illuminating, soloing and silhoutting
actors and musicians.
Hawaii foilage and tree lighting create an ambience that differentiates events held here
in Hawai’i.
To move all such events indoors will create a scenario of administrators wondering
why a client’s event needs to be held here in Hawaii, as opposed to a less expensive
location on the mainland.
Hawaii is a landmark destination and we have our story to tell.
Aside from the business itself, I am individually concerned because as a Lighting
Designer, I use lighting effects for not only mainland presentation, but for our world
caliber local entertainers to enhance their narrative as well.
Jay Robert Harmon
President
Eggshell Lighting Company, Inc.
My name is Jim Hayes, President of Planning Solutions, Inc. (PSI). PSI recently prepared the Draft Environmental Assessment (DEA) for the Maui County Streetlight Conversion Project (https://files.hawaii.gov/dbedt/erp/Doc_Library/2022-07-23-MA-DEA-Maui-County-Streetlight-Conversion-Project.pdf). During the preparation of the DEA and in the course of assessing the impacts of other projects throughout Hawai‘i for many years, I have become knowledgeable in the threats to seabirds and other wildlife in Hawai‘i. Light attraction is one of the many threats.
The County of Maui is appropriately concerned about the treats posed by artificial lighting. However, some of the measures included in Bill 21 are not reasonable or proven methods to reduce and minimize those threats.
The reasonable and proven methods to reduce threats to wildlife, that should be retained in Bill 21, are:
1. Require full shielding of lighting.
2. Do not allow light to shine over the ocean.
These measures are consistent with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) guidelines. In their letter dated July 14, 2022, to the County of Maui Corporation Counsel, USFWS recommends three general measures to avoid and minimize adverse effects to Hawaiian seabirds. The list below provides those recommendations and how the Maui County Streetlight Conversion Project addresses them:
• Fully shield all outdoor lights so the bulb can only be seen from below. This is the same as “full shielding” and is a requirement of Maui’s current streetlighting code and should be made to apply to nearly all lighting.
• Install automatic motion sensor switches and controls on all outdoor lights or turn off lights when human activity is not occurring in the lighted area. This is not achievable using current streetlight technology.
• Avoid nighttime lighting, including nighttime construction, during the seabird fledging season, September 15 through December 15. Streetlights are meant to operate throughout the year, but as detailed in the DEA, the County of Maui will dim all streetlights during the identified seabird fledging season.
It is important to note that the USFWS’ recommendations do not include mandating lights with a low blue light content. The agency indicates that the jury is still out concerning the “best” light spectrums for avoiding and minimizing seabird adverse effects. There are other important points that I believe should lead the County to reconsider, and ideally eliminate, the island-wide low blue light content requirement from Bill 21, including:
• Limiting blue light does not reduce the amount of light in the environment, in fact, it may do the opposite. When lights do not produce a broad spectrum of light (including some blue light), they typically need to produce more lumens to overcome the disadvantage of have a low scotopic/photopic ratio (S/P ratio) and low color rendering index (CRI).
• Limiting blue light to reduce impacts to wildlife is only proven to be appropriate near the coast where lights are directly visible from beaches where sea turtles are or may be present. This is why the DEA for the Maui County Streetlight Conversion Project provides several minimization measures in the coastal area, including the potential use of low blue light streetlights (see Section 2.1.5.3 of DEA).
• Having an ordinance that requires products conform to a parameter that manufacturers do not disclose will inhibit review and enforcement. It is exceedingly rare that manufacturers disclose a blue light content for their products. If they do, it is unlikely that the formula they use will be identical to the formula in the bill. New products are frequently brought to market. They would need to be independently tested to establish if they comply. It will not be easy to maintain a list of products that comply.
Although I am a supporter of reducing the quantity and impacts of artificial light in our environment, I cannot support legislation that does not stand up in the face of available scientific evidence and resource agency recommendations. Instead of proceeding with Bill 21 as written, I recommend that the Council re-examine the issues before they turn Maui orange.
Thank you for the opportunity to provide testimony. I can be reached via email at jim@psi-hi.com or via telephone at 808-550-4559.
Testimonies received by CARE Committee.
Aloha Climate Action, Resilience and Environment Committee:
My name is Jeff Bagshaw and I am in strong support of Bill 21, CD2.
Kudos to this committee and the Council for working on this difficult and detailed bill. You’ve worked through many details and iterations because this is about creating “smart-lighting” instead of over-lighting. Creating good governance isn’t always easy. One concern opponents have raised are the costs of conversion.
It’s easy to calculate those dollars, but what is more difficult to quantify are environmental services we expect to be free, even to make us money. When the issue of conversion costs are raised, please compare those to the following.
Freshwater is the first: I’ve previously testified how seabirds are a vital link in nutrient cycling for native forests and shrublands. We get our freshwater from our forests. It may flow in streams, be stored in ponds or come from aquifers and wells, but it is first captured in our native forests. To replace the work of seabirds evenly distributing nutrients in the form of their guano, to keep forests healthy and functioning would require hundreds of thousands of dollars in helicopter time to foliar-spray our native forests. Or it would take thousands of people-hours annually, hiking through the forests with heavy packs, hand-spreading fertilizers. And there are many studies showing how those nutrients even feed our reefs in the right amounts and chemical compositions, to keep corals producing fish for food.
We talk about food-security often, but water-security is even more basic unless we’re willing to have a future of tankers delivering fresh water to our docks, we have to take care of all the links in the chain that keeps our waters flowing, now.
Which leads to another environmental service we capitalize on for free: reef fish and sea turtles. The Hawaii Visitor Bureau’s 2020 Annual Visitor Satisfaction and Activity Survey once again states that roughly 60% of visitors to Maui report they snorkeled or came to Maui specifically to snorkel. The survey doesn’t report one thing I can share anecdotally. First time visitors to `Ahihi- Kina`u Natural Area Reserve will ask me about 30-40% of the time: “Can we see turtles here?” right after “Can we see fish here?” Look at souvenirs sold through any retail outlet large or small. What is one of the top five iconic creatures on tee shirts, stickers, stuffed toys, keychains… sea turtles. How many dollars in profits can be attributed to the presence of these animals and visitors wanting to remember or hope for an experience? As others have testified, over- and badly designed lighting affects all reef animals including fish and turtles.
Modern astronomers can give estimates of the values of dark skies for professional sky-watching, and there are at least a dozen private tour-companies that include star watching in their list of activities/services they provide, which can again, equate to environmental aspects we capitalize on for free. In fact, a photo exhibit celebrating the beauty of Hawaiian night skies opens at the Schafer Gallery on Sept 1st. But an incalculable benefit is the ability for residents to be able to look at up and experience seeing stars used in traditional navigation as was done generations ago, and Nainoa Thompson of course used stars, but also relied on seabirds in the last hours of his first voyage as a navigator to Tahiti. The modern definition of a cultural landscape goes beyond archeological features – it includes being able to experience a landscape as our ancestors did to hear seabirds call in the night. “Honolulu City Lights” is a lovely song, but rewriting those lyrics to become “Kahului City Lights” would be a sad cultural replacement for the loss of seabirds and the other pieces of the environmental chorus we are losing with in-action.
The latest estimates for sea level rise say we will lose 26-40% of the nesting habitats for seabirds in Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument, where 96% of the world’s Laysan Albatross currently nest, a species that led early navigators here, which is unique to our islands. We have to start now in preparing for those climate refugees to move back to the lower eight Hawaiian islands. We can make room for them, we can invest in and pay for the free resources we have capitalized on for many years. Its time to pay that price, to take back the night.
Jeff Bagshaw
Communications and Outreach Specialist
State of Hawaii, Division of Forestry and Wildlife, Maui Nui Branch
Jeff.w.bagshaw@hawaii.gov
(808)264-7891
Tuesday, August 30, 2022
Kelly Takaya King
Committee Chair, Climate Action, Resilience and Environment Committee
Council of the County of Maui
Via email: CARE.committee@mauicounty.us
Testimony Bill 21 CD1, FD1 (2022)
Dear Councilmember King and members of the Committee,
I am the President of Pacific Rim Concepts LLC, and the meeting planner of the Pacific Islands Environment Conference for the Environmental Protection Agency Region 9, Hawaii Conservation Conference, World Conservation Conference for the International Union of Conservation for Nature 2016, Hawaii Energy, and other similar organizations and events, we are amongst those who study and protect the creatures and habitat, and the species.
Sure a cry from a select few, is not the majority. And a total ban is extreme.
Lighting for homes provides safety and security.
Lighting for special events also provide safety and are not designed to harm the nature species. These event lights are temporary installations.
Recognizing the harm that certain lights and installations have on our wildlife; there can be solutions for future equipment design for safe installation and protection for both animal and human enjoyment. Allow for those collaborations and products to be created before instituting a total ban on lights.
I urge you to table this bill as it is harmful for the protection and safety of our community, and people.
Thank you for your service.
Lee-Ann Choy
Pacific Rim Concepts LLC
45-520 Kamooalii Street
Kaneohe, HI 96744
Tel. 808-864-9812
Fax. 1-866-211-3427
Email: lee-ann@pacificrimconcepts.com
Aloha!
Please see my attached testimony in support of Bill 21.
Mahalo!
Aloha Chair King and Committee members,
I strongly support CARE 74, Bill 21.
I appreciate the time and consideration that has been given to everyone's concerns and it appears that those concerns have been addressed. It's time to move this legislation forward to secure the future for our precious seabirds and honu. I want to know that these wild and special residents of Maui County are protected for my grandchildren and their grandchildren.
Please support this Bill.
Mahalo,
Ms. Barbara Barry
Dear Committee Members;
Our Company does lighting for Concerts, Television, Conventions & Special Events
throughout the Hawaiian Islands.
I am duly concerned that the bill before you, if passed in it’s present state, will impact
all kinds of events in a vast number of venues.
There should be exemptions made available for temporary events.
Modern equipment utilized by the entertainment industry has strikingly reduced the
electrical power consumption required for such events.
Stage fixtures have powerful and dramatic use for illuminating, soloing and silhoutting
actors and musicians.
Hawaii foilage and tree lighting create an ambience that differentiates events held here
in Hawai’i.
To move all such events indoors will create a scenario of administrators wondering
why a client’s event needs to be held here in Hawaii, as opposed to a less expensive
location on the mainland.
Hawaii is a landmark destination and we have our story to tell.
Aside from the business itself, I am individually concerned because as a Lighting
Designer, I use lighting effects for not only mainland presentation, but for our world
caliber local entertainers to enhance their narrative as well.
Jay Robert Harmon
President
Eggshell Lighting Company, Inc.
My name is Jim Hayes, President of Planning Solutions, Inc. (PSI). PSI recently prepared the Draft Environmental Assessment (DEA) for the Maui County Streetlight Conversion Project (https://files.hawaii.gov/dbedt/erp/Doc_Library/2022-07-23-MA-DEA-Maui-County-Streetlight-Conversion-Project.pdf). During the preparation of the DEA and in the course of assessing the impacts of other projects throughout Hawai‘i for many years, I have become knowledgeable in the threats to seabirds and other wildlife in Hawai‘i. Light attraction is one of the many threats.
The County of Maui is appropriately concerned about the treats posed by artificial lighting. However, some of the measures included in Bill 21 are not reasonable or proven methods to reduce and minimize those threats.
The reasonable and proven methods to reduce threats to wildlife, that should be retained in Bill 21, are:
1. Require full shielding of lighting.
2. Do not allow light to shine over the ocean.
These measures are consistent with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) guidelines. In their letter dated July 14, 2022, to the County of Maui Corporation Counsel, USFWS recommends three general measures to avoid and minimize adverse effects to Hawaiian seabirds. The list below provides those recommendations and how the Maui County Streetlight Conversion Project addresses them:
• Fully shield all outdoor lights so the bulb can only be seen from below. This is the same as “full shielding” and is a requirement of Maui’s current streetlighting code and should be made to apply to nearly all lighting.
• Install automatic motion sensor switches and controls on all outdoor lights or turn off lights when human activity is not occurring in the lighted area. This is not achievable using current streetlight technology.
• Avoid nighttime lighting, including nighttime construction, during the seabird fledging season, September 15 through December 15. Streetlights are meant to operate throughout the year, but as detailed in the DEA, the County of Maui will dim all streetlights during the identified seabird fledging season.
It is important to note that the USFWS’ recommendations do not include mandating lights with a low blue light content. The agency indicates that the jury is still out concerning the “best” light spectrums for avoiding and minimizing seabird adverse effects. There are other important points that I believe should lead the County to reconsider, and ideally eliminate, the island-wide low blue light content requirement from Bill 21, including:
• Limiting blue light does not reduce the amount of light in the environment, in fact, it may do the opposite. When lights do not produce a broad spectrum of light (including some blue light), they typically need to produce more lumens to overcome the disadvantage of have a low scotopic/photopic ratio (S/P ratio) and low color rendering index (CRI).
• Limiting blue light to reduce impacts to wildlife is only proven to be appropriate near the coast where lights are directly visible from beaches where sea turtles are or may be present. This is why the DEA for the Maui County Streetlight Conversion Project provides several minimization measures in the coastal area, including the potential use of low blue light streetlights (see Section 2.1.5.3 of DEA).
• Having an ordinance that requires products conform to a parameter that manufacturers do not disclose will inhibit review and enforcement. It is exceedingly rare that manufacturers disclose a blue light content for their products. If they do, it is unlikely that the formula they use will be identical to the formula in the bill. New products are frequently brought to market. They would need to be independently tested to establish if they comply. It will not be easy to maintain a list of products that comply.
Although I am a supporter of reducing the quantity and impacts of artificial light in our environment, I cannot support legislation that does not stand up in the face of available scientific evidence and resource agency recommendations. Instead of proceeding with Bill 21 as written, I recommend that the Council re-examine the issues before they turn Maui orange.
Thank you for the opportunity to provide testimony. I can be reached via email at jim@psi-hi.com or via telephone at 808-550-4559.
Please see the attachment for my comments.
Please find attached Earthjustice's testimony in support of Bill 21 (CARE-74).