As a child, Brian P. Murphy would lie on a blanket at
his family's farm at 96th Street and Allisonville Road and gaze at
the stars.
Now, he said, the area along the border of Marion and
Hamilton counties is awash in light from commercial and residential
development that makes it difficult to see the night sky.
"It's getting to the point where it's really hard to
find a really black, dark sky without driving an hour and a half or
two hours from Indianapolis," said Murphy, vice president of the
Indiana Astronomical Society.
He and others say it's time for Indiana to get serious
about controlling light pollution, which they say also wastes money
and energy.
But a year after a panel of lawmakers recommended that
Gov. Frank O'Bannon appoint a task force to study the issue and
write a model lighting ordinance for Indiana municipalities, the
group has never been formed.
"What's really frustrating is that this problem is so
easy to address," said Kevin Fleming, founder of the Indiana Council
on Outdoor Lighting Education, a volunteer organization that is
leading a letter-writing campaign to persuade the governor to
appoint the task force.
"Here we are looking high and low for ways to save
money in government, yet ignoring the opportunity for . . . a
cost-free search for money-saving ideas."
O'Bannon spokeswoman Mary Dieter said the governor
simply has not found enough people interested in serving on such a
task force. She said the group must represent everyone who would be
affected by lighting rules, "but we've not had luck finding anybody
with a strong interest in pursuing this."
"This is not off the radar screen, but it is not as
high a priority as wetlands or clean air," she said.
In perfect darkness, 2,500 stars should be visible to
the naked eye. But only 200 to 300 stars are visible in a typical
U.S. suburb, according to the International Dark Sky Association in
Tucson, Ariz. Indianapolis stargazers estimate that number could be
as low as 100 in some areas of the city.
The problem, they say, is poorly directed light --
fixtures that have no shields or caps, sending about one-third of
nighttime light to the heavens instead of the ground.
Even smaller Indiana communities aren't immune.
"Almost every town over 7,000 or 8,000 people has a
Wal-Mart and fast-food places," Murphy noted.
In Hanover, a BP gas station and McDonald's restaurant
constructed last year near the Hanover College observatory have
sparked complaints that the businesses' lights obscure students'
view of the Western sky.
Although the gas station owner agreed to shield some
lights, McDonald's officials would make no changes, said astronomy
and physics Professor George Nickas.
"It's hard to see until they close at 1 or 2 in the
morning, which is later than we want to hold class here," he
said.
But the issue "goes way beyond the loss of the night
sky," Murphy said.
Fleming estimates Indiana residents spend $100 million
a year on energy to generate the excess light, leading to more
pollution from coal-burning plants that produce the energy.
Light pollution also may affect people's health by
interrupting the natural sleep rhythm, and it may confuse animals,
such as migrating birds, said Elizabeth Alvarez, executive director
of the International Dark Sky Association.
"This has become a huge issue," said Alvarez, whose
group is conducting a conference Friday and Saturday in Boston . "It
affects so many aspects of society, and it's just a waste."
Although some Indiana communities, such as Nashville
and Hendricks County, have adopted lighting ordinances, activists
say the state needs to take the lead on the issue.
About a half-dozen states have passed outdoor lighting
ordinances, Alvarez said. The California Energy Commission is
considering outdoor lighting standards after the recent energy
crisis there.
"If it's not addressed at the state level, it's not
going to get the local attention it deserves," said Murphy, who also
is a member of the Indianapolis Metropolitan Development Commission
and develops commercial real estate.
The director of Butler University's Holcomb
Observatory and Planetarium said it's not too late to restore the
view from Indiana's largest city.
An estimated two-thirds of people in the United States
-- including those in Indianapolis -- no longer can see Earth's
galaxy, the Milky Way, with the naked eye. But it would be possible
to see from Indianapolis if lights were properly shielded, said
Brian Murphy of the Holcomb Observatory. He is not related to Brian
P. Murphy.
"If Indianapolis had better lighting, we could do a
heck of a lot more," he said. "I keep telling people this will
snowball into a big issue."
