Watershed School Streetlights Survey:
WS Students Present Rockland Street Light Survey Findings
Street lights are the second largest user of electricity for Rockland, costing the city more than $13,500 every month. When City Council authorized an evaluation of city energy use as a part of an energy planning grant application last November, a street light survey was identified as a key step. A street light survey would allow the Council to determine if the existing number, location, and wattage of street lights made sense or if there might be ways to reduce energy costs, while improving the overall quality and efficiency of Rockland’s outdoor lighting.
left to right: Larry Pritchett (chair of Rockland Energy Committee), Janet McMahon (teacher), Nora Willauer, Reid Evans, Nathan Hillman, Fiona Boyd, Devin Fletcher, Brenda Reddy, Sophie Davis
Just as the Rockland Energy Committee began figuring out how to conduct the street light survey, Janet McMahon, a science and social studies teacher at Watershed School, approached the Committee looking for an energy related project her students might do. The Committee unanimously suggested that the street light survey would be a good project for the class. Janet McMahon and 10 Watershed sophomores have enthusiastically taken this on. Since early May, on Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoons, student teams have been fanning out in the area east of Broadway to document the city’s street lights (pole numbers, location, light type, wattage, light purpose, etc.). In addition, they have been working with John Root, Rockland’s Code Enforcement Officer, to put the information they’ve collected on a Geographic Information System (GIS), which will help the City plan more efficiently. By the time they are finished, they will have covered more than 20 miles of city streets and inventoried nearly 400 street lights.
The three goals of the survey are to confirm that the lights the city is paying for actually exist, to identify specific lights that should be reviewed to see if they are over-sized for their location or may no longer be needed, and to add the street light data to the City’s GIS system in the code office.
Achieving these goals has the potential to both save the city a great deal of money and provide Rockland with the information needed to transition to more energy efficient street lighting over time.
Cameron Gerrish collects data
In addition to on-the-ground inventory work, Watershed students have been researching steps other towns and cities are taking to reduce energy costs and carbon emissions associated with lighting. The class’s initial findings are both surprising and inspiring. Outdoor lighting constitutes up to a third of the energy used by most towns. As a result, towns of all sizes in Maine and across the country are working to reduce lighting costs. “It’s as if light bulbs are going off in town officials’ heads all over the country”, one student commented. Rockland has approximately 773 street lights and a population of approximately 7600, which translates to more than 1 street light for every 10 residents. This is much higher than the average in Maine. Many Maine towns, such as Falmouth, Cape Elizabeth, Bar Harbor, Kennebunk, South Portland and Lewiston, have come to the conclusion that they are over-lit and have begun street light reduction programs to reduce light wattage or remove unnecessary lights. Other towns, such as Bangor and Waldoboro, use lower wattage lights to begin with (for example, in the Bangor area, 50 Watt lamps are used in most residential areas, instead of the 70 Watt minimum used in Rockland. Some towns are turning off or dimming lights between midnight and 5:00 am when most people are asleep. In addition, there are a host of new more efficient technologies, such as energy on demand and motion detectors that light up streets as pedestrians need them, intelligent (computerized) street light systems that adjust the brightness of lights depending on the amount of moonlight and time of evening, and conversion to LED lighting, which is being piloted from Old Town, Maine to the Los Angeles, California. An added benefit from these technologies and programs is that residents of many towns are now enjoying a night sky with far less light pollution.
Nathan Hillman, Devin Fletcher and Brenda Reddy check results.
Public safety is usually one of the main barriers that arises when towns consider reducing street lighting. Surprisingly, study after study has shown that crime is unaffected or even decreases when the number and intensity of street lights is reduced. Another barrier identified by the students is that the Central Maine Power rate structure for delivering electricity to Rockland discourages conversion to more efficient technology. For example, older lamps that use 30% more energy and produce more light pollution are less expensive than the newer more efficient lamps. There is even a penalty for converting 70 Watt lights to 50 Watt lights. These create a disincentive to change that is beginning to receive scrutiny at the legislative level.
In the end, "It all boils down to common sense," says student Cameron Gerrish. Because most towns have put in street lights over many decades, usually without an overarching plan, there tends to be a lot of waste and inefficiency. As student Brenda Reddy put it, "Every town would like to cut costs and what better way to do it than to cut unnecessary expenses." Classmate Sophie Davis quoted from the Clinton Climate Initiative, which is working with the many of the world’s largest cities to reduce energy use and costs: "The solution to the climate crisis isn’t far off in the future – it’s in the buildings we inhabit, our civic infrastructure and the way we organize our lives."
Climate Change Class
"It’s a no brainer", says McMahon, "the town saves money, cuts greenhouse gas emissions, and we can see the stars!".
