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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMIN CRNRMC 2022/04/19 2020-2022 Committee on Climate Resilience and Natural Resource Management 2nd Session West Hawaii Civic Center 74-5044 Ane Keohokalole Highway, Building A Kailua-Kona, Hawai i April 19, 2022 CALL TO The regular meeting of the Committee on Climate Resilience and Natural ORDER: Resource Management was called to order at 9:00 a.m., in the Council Chambers, Kailua-Kona, by Ms. Rebecca Villegas, Chair. ROLL CALL: Present: Ms. Rebecca Villegas, Member, Chair Ms. Heather L. Kimball, Vice Chair Ms. Maile Medeiros David, Member Mr. Holeka Goro Inaba, Member Mr. Matt Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Member (via videoconference from Hilo) Ms. Susan L. K. Lee Loy, Member (came in later) Mr. Herbert M. "Tim" Richards, III, Member (came in later) Absent& Excused: Mr. Aaron S. Y. Chung, Member Ms. Ashley L. Kierkiewicz, Member STATEMENTS The Chair directed the Committee to proceed to the next order of business, FROM THE Statements from the Public on Agenda Items. PUBLIC ON AGENDA ITEMS: The following individual registered to speak and came forward when called by the Chair: Richard Wainscoat: Comm. 735, comment. CHR. VILLEGAS: Clerk, could you read in the communication? COMMUNI- The Chair directed the Committee to proceed to the next order of business, CATIONS: Communications. Comm. 735: REQUESTS A PRESENTATION BY MICHAEL MARLIN REGARDING "DARK SKY" INITIATIVES WHICH PROPOSE TO REDUCE ENERGY CONSUMPTION AND COSTS, GREENHOUSE GASES, AND PROTECT PUBLIC HEALTH AND WILDLIFE From Council Member Maile David, dated April 1, 2022. CRNRMC-2 April 19,2022 Motion to Approve: Ms. David moved to close file on Comm. 735. Seconded by Mr. Inaba. CHR. VILLEGAS: Thank you so much. Aloha, Mr. Marlin, thank you for being here today. If you want to go ahead and push the button and introduce yourself, and share with us the presentation you brought? (Note: At this time Astrotourism Consultant Michael Marlin came forward to address the members of the Committee.) MR. MARLIN: Thank you, Council Chair David and the distinguished people of this Committee. I'm honored to have this opportunity to present to you this day. Before I begin, I would like to attend to my opening remarks, though a stitch in time, may save nine. For most of us the problem usually has to be on our doorstep before we act, rather not withstanding. My case is no different. Today I'm here, as the problem has landed on my doorstep literally. Light pollution has finally come into my neighborhood,the southeastern shore at Kalapana, into my yard and into my home. The new owner of the home across the street has installed lights that shine not only into my front porch, but into my house. While I've asked many, many times over the course of the year for the owner to address this, I was ignored and threatened to be sued if I spoke to the guests about turning off the lights. These lights are not being used. I made a comment in my TEDx talk that a light on with nobody using it is hardly different than your oven on and no food in it. I finally contacted the police hoping to get the situation addressed. They came and verified that indeed the lights shine into my house and they would speak to the owner, which meant calling Houston, as the owner doesn't live there but only operates it as a Short-Term Vacation Rental. People in Houston haven't seen the stars for probably 75 years. The owner has since put in additional lights that are now penetrating over 300 feet onto my property. I learned, as did the police, there's nothing that can be done, given how the current ordinances are written. Anybody can shine their light into your yard or house and there's nothing you can do about it. Today, the sky glow from Pahoa can be seen in Kalapana. And the sky glow from Hilo can be seen in Kurtistown. It is happening. We are losing the darkness of night over the Island of Hawaii. Big Island is the frontline, as the battle to save the night was lost some time ago in Oahu and Maui. Page 2 CRNRMC-2 April 19,2022 I believe we have a birthright to the night, to darkness, our view of the stars. Not just because it's exospheric or pretty, but because it's economically, environmentally, ethically, culturally the right thing to do. And this is what my presentation is about. (Note: At this time, Mr. Marlin provided a PowerPoint presentation to the members of the Committee. For viewing of subject presentation, see the DVD copy of the meeting proceedings on file in the Clerk's Office or online by navigating to the Council's video archives from the County's homepage at www.hawaiicounty.gov. A copy of the presentation is made a part of the record, see Comm. 735.) CHR. VILLEGAS: Mahalo, Mr. Marlin, appreciate that. Let the records show that we have Council Member Sue Lee Loy, and Council Member Tim Richards, currently in attendance. At this time, I'd like to open it up to any comments from my colleagues. MS. DAVID: Thank you, could I have the floor for this communication? I just need a few more—before we go to the other Council Members. CHR. VILLEGAS: Okay, of course, go ahead. MS. DAVID: Thank you, Chair. Mr. Marlin, I'm just blown away by your presentation and the information that you have provided. Not knowing what we've always come to appreciate, but seeing your presentation and the importance of it was very eye-opening for myself. And I thank you for your very, very great presentation. I also wanted to thank Mr. Wainscoat for his valuable testimony this morning. He just returned from the mainland, I understand. And at this point, if it's okay with you, I want to call our Parks and Recreation Director, Mr. Messina. Could you come up to the table, Director Messina? And I had a conversation with Mr. Marlin. And then I was privileged to just mention it in passing to Director Messina. And he has some very, very exciting information to share with us with respect to Dark Skies, or as he calls it, stargazing with Parks and Recreation. Go ahead, Mr. Messina. (Note: At this time Parks and Recreation Director Maurice Messina came forward to address the members of the Committee.) MR. MESSINA: Good morning, Maurice Messina, Director of Parks and Recreation. Although not as well-versed as Michael and all of this, I just wanted to bring a few points of emphasis to some of the things we're doing in our Parks and Rec. facilities. Page 3 CRNRMC-2 April 19,2022 Part of the presentation that you saw when you showed the gray area there, you know, in the middle of the island, that's where Gilbert Kahele Park is, and we actually have a stargazing parking lot there. If you drive into the park, it's on the right-hand side. We have no lights, no street lights; no bathroom lights in that area or anything. And we encourage everyone to go there for stargazing. And also, you know, one of the parts of his presentation was about security. And we do encourage folks if they want to have a stargazing group at any of our parks, to just contact us. And we would make some type of agreement with them, whether it be Friends of the Park in Hawaii; or we'll use something like that to where we would allow them to go in at night and do stargazing. You know, as long as it's not a commercial activity, and it's free to the public, and it's open to anyone. And those are just some of the things that we're doing. Not necessarily an initiative or anything. It's just another way because, you know, a lot of our parks are closed at night, and a lot of vandalism and theft happen. I mean, our department already spends $977,000 a year on security as it is. And so having some people in our parks after the sun goes down is not a bad thing, as long as they're not into any nefarious activities. Thank you. MS. DAVID: Thank you so much, Director. And right now, Chair Villegas, I am going to yield. And just want to say, thank you again, Mr. Marlin. And for my Council Members, I yield. CHR. VILLEGAS: Thank you, Chair David, really appreciate you bringing this forward. Thanks for that great news as well, Mr. Messina. So at this time, any of my other colleagues have any comments or questions? Council Member Inaba. MR. INABA: Thank you. Good morning and thank you so much for the presentation. For the studies that are showing our light situation here on Hawaii Island, I know some of our major streets, especially here in Kona, have been replaced or retrofitted with what I believe to be, you know, more environmentally responsible lighting. How are we keeping track or are you keeping track of those transitions from those old orange glow in the sky to the street-oriented lights? MR. MARLIN: Thank you for that question. Yes, the County has a yellow filter over what is a white LED (Light-Emitting Diode) light. Those yellow filters, I think, probably are there specifically for the astronomy industry, because they can filter that out. It doesn't really benefit the rest of us, because it doesn't make our sky viewing any better. Now, those that apply to the County, they don't apply to residents or businesses. Page 4 CRNRMC-2 April 19,2022 So, an example is the Puna Kai Shopping Center that just went up. And the parking lot has those yellow lights, right? Those yellow filtered lights. But the porticos has these intensely white fluorescence which are bouncing off the pavement and going up into the sky. And that's what creating the sky glow down in Kalapana. So, it doesn't really matter how many County lights you've altered. Unless you address the business and the residential, those are just going to wash out any mitigation you're trying to do with those yellow filtered lights. MR. INABA: And are there any County or State agencies that are monitoring or keeping track of the data on the changes that the government are doing? Or it is just you and your organization who is trying to track our progress on this transition of the lights, do you know? Mr. MARLIN: So you're asking, who's monitoring the transition? MR. INABA: So, well, you report on data today, right, and showing us some graphs of the lighting situation, but how are we knowing how we are progressing when we do change over? Because the old orange lights that really lit up the sky seemed worse. At least, to the naked eye than what we have with those yellow filtered lights going down on the streets. So are you keeping track of that data and how we're transitioning, at least the County and State lighting over? MR. MARLIN: I personally am not. However, the International Dark Sky Association and the International Astronomical Union is a huge body of scientists and researchers. So they've been keeping a much closer tab on that. I mean, it's only been within the last decade that we're actually seeing the first pictures from outer space of what it looks like being lit up. And that's how I was able to present those global scales to show the distinction. So those were generated by there's Dark Sky atlas that was created by about a dozen different scientists out of Europe to create those dark sky images. MR. INABA: Okay, and are they working in conjunction with perhaps our DPW (Department of Public Works) or HELCO (Hawai`i Electric Light Company) to understand, you know, correlate that data with the images that we're seeing from above and the data we show what we actually transitioned over? Just wondering data-wise, you know, as we move forward, how are we correlating this data with the images and what we know is actually happening transition-wise from the old lighting to the new lighting? MR. MARLIN: Well, the way to do that is with a sky-quality meter, which is a little device about yea-big. And I meant to bring it in today to show it today, but Page 5 CRNRMC-2 April 19,2022 it's not much bigger than this little device here. And you hold it up to the zenith and it shows you how much light pollution there is. So everybody can become a citizen-scientist. As a matter of fact, it was Richard Wainscoat who sent me that. And I'll be using that device when I go down into Ka`u and start taking my measurements which will be necessary to get dark sky certification for Ka`u. So, and you can't just get one reading. You have to do like a wide swath of them and then take the mean average out of that. MR. INABA: Got it. Thank you so much. That's all the questions I have. Very much appreciate your presentation. MR. MARLIN: Thank you. CHR. VILLEGAS: Thank you, Council Member Inaba. Anyone else? Ms. Lee Loy. MS. LEE LOY: Thank you. You know, I just wanted to share with my colleagues, we actually have an outdoor lighting ordinance. It's housed in a different chapter, which is Chapter 14, Article 9. And we had picked that up to maybe blend that into our Construction Codes, but it was just far too much to do. So, if anyone's interested, and you know, working with our speaker and others, that's definitely an area. And I know he touched upon it, right, on areas of codifying some of these edits. Making it more energy-efficient along with, you know, providing people outside of government, right? The business community or other property owners. And understanding on how to shield these lights properly. I understand some people also use that for security. I mean, we have big spotlights on the corner of our garage, right? Those things are actually adding to the light pollution. And using that section of our County Code, and refining it retuning it, you know, along these lines would actually help. So I just wanted to share that. Thank you, I yield. MR. MARLIN: I just want to add that one of the things that has been learned, is that with the new seven pin connectors on these lights, that if you reduce your light output by 50 percent at midnight, you'll be saving about 75 percent on your energy costs. So again, you know, it's the County can take steps by changing its lighting as it's needed over the course of the evening. They did a retrofit in Pickerel Massachusetts, and they have an 80 percent energy saving moving from low-sodium or high-sodium lights to LED lights. And the city of South Lake Tahoe is now taking up dark sky initiatives, because they see that it's going to benefit in a lot of ways, especially through the energy savings. Page 6 CRNRMC-2 April 19,2022 CHR. VILLEGAS: Thank you so much. Anyone else, Heather? No? Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder? Not there. Okay. So with that, I just have a couple of questions for you. I guess basically, do our streetlightsI know that we have been working—Highways and DPW on transitioning the streetlights on the Big Island. And I wondered if you are aware of the lights there transitioning to, and if those are in alignment with what your recommendations are? MR. MARLIN: Okay, so some of these new lightings went up in some—in a new subdivision Hawaiian Home Lands which is between Kalapana Seaview Estates and where Uncle Robert's is. And all of a sudden these lights are on, and it's like, there's nobody around. It's like, "Why are these lights on?" And you know, this is where I'm baffled by it. I mean I understand maybe having it at an intersection where someone's coming out. But some of these streets are lit up, and they're lights aren't serving any purpose. These yellow-filtered lights, again, they're definitely mitigating a certain amount of wavelength. I think they were put in specifically for the benefit of the astronomical industry and not for the people on the street. CHR. VILLEGAS: Definitely. MR. MARLIN: And there's also just the factor of how bright does the light need to be? And so, you know, a lot of times you can bring a light down 50 percent. And we're not even aware that that's happened. We can't even tell that, register that. And yet, now you've reduced 50 percent of your energy output. CHR. VILLEGAS: Fantastic. So we're not there where we need to be, is what it sounds like. And these retrofitting of the LED lights to have the yellow filtration system on, I think you're exactly correct that the purpose for that was for the astronomy industry. But it sounds like we have further to go as a County, and that there is a prized resource that we'll lose unless we start paying attention. And as Council Member Lee Loy says, it sounding to me like we need within this municipality, some legislation. Not only related to DPW and how the public spaces are lit, like you're saying. But there's opportunity here to reduce our footprint and energy consumption as a County. And I know I've had a number of different constituents reach out to me with concerns for hotel lighting and how that was affecting seabirds. I know there's a legal case on Maui related to that. And so I mean, you're obviously an expert in this field. And so for so many of us, it's still kind of a new topic. And it's counterintuitive to everything that, you know, essentially mainstream is teaching us. Light it up, light it up, light it up. Page 7 CRNRMC-2 April 19,2022 But, as you pointed out so profoundly and really helped to clarify, is the value in the dark sky and what that means. I know, I used to do a lot of camping on the coast of Kohanaiki and the experience of laying there under the stars and seeing that many sources of lights and shooting stars and planets, and twinkling, and satellites. And the amount of movement, and just that experience of being able to be that small under that broad sky and see so much is really powerful, and I think it's a sacred experience. I mean, culturally and historically it has profoundly impacted the way that humans behave and interact with our world. So, I'd be interested in talking with you more about this. Our Mayor and this Administration has spoken a lot about wanting to move in sustainable ways and culturally appropriate legislation, in those capacities. So I'd really be interested in exploring some more conversations. I know he's just returned from a trip, focused on climate issues and sea level rise. And I think that this is another way to look at how we can mitigate our carbon footprint when it comes to utilization of energy and resources. So, I'm just really excited to continue this conversation and see how this can be utilized in DPW to mitigate the unnecessary use of energy and resources. And to protect what you have pointed out is a priceless resource that's disappearing. And I had seen in a magazine about those igloos in the Nordic Regions and people being able to visit and experience that. So thank you for pointing that out. Thank you, Council Chair David for bringing this forward and for your really wonderful presentation. So I really hope to continue conversations and bring this as a solution to the issues that we have. And a solution and knowing that your vast knowledge—okay, what are the specifics of the lightbulbs, and—what was the kelvin? MR. MARLIN: Yes. CHR. VILLEGAS: Low kelvin, and what color? And just all of those things are so validating, I think for us when things feel a little off. Like it feels so fake. Some of those blue, blue lights. I know I get lights for my Christmas tree, and I'm like, I cannot do that LED blue light; it just feels funky. And so,just your expertise is invaluable and priceless in order to direct this toward the solution, recognizing the problem. Gosh, we do that all day long with all kinds of things. But having an expert here who can help identify some solutions is really valuable. So thank you. MR. MARLIN: Thank you. CHR. VILLEGAS: Yes. Alright. And with that,thank you for being here today. Page 8 CRNRMC-2 April 19,2022 MR. MARLIN: Aloha. CHR. VILLEGAS: Alright. Can we take a vote? All those in favor? Vote on Comm. 735: The motion to close file on Comm. 735 was carried by (Filed) the following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members David, Inaba, Kimball, Lee Loy, Richards, and Chair Villegas—6. Noes: None. Absent: Committee Members Chung, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, and Kierkiewicz—3. Excused: None. CHR. VILLEGAS: May I have a motion to adjourn? ADJOURN- There being no further business, at 9:44 a.m., Ms. Kimball moved to adjourn the MENT: meeting. Seconded by Ms. Lee Loy and carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members David, Inaba, Kimball, Lee Loy, Richards, and Chair Villegas—6. Noes: None. Absent: Committee Members Chung, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, and Kierkiewicz—3. Excused: None. CHR. VILLEGAS: We are adjourned. Approved: May 6, 2022 Ms. R- s ecca illegas, Chair (Date) Climate Resilience and Natural Resource Management Committee RV/dt Page 9