Some people I've spoken to seem to feel that the racing itself shouldn't pose too much of a problem, most events will be over before midnight, but Guy made a good point about the traffic going home, also the facility will be used for concerts and other events on non-race nights and these events may cause the biggest problems from a light pollution standpoint because individually they are "one-time only" events and can more easily get a variance or waiver for the event.
From experience I've found that full-cut-off shielding has a marginal effect when the source is massive and very close. Also paved surfaces reflect much more than turf or planted ground. Perhaps a little activism might not be out-of-hand in this instance.
From: diveboss@xmission.com To: Utah Astronomy <utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com> Date: Sun, 12 Dec 2004 23:29:43 -0700 Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] Re: Tooele racetrack
I don't think the 'light pollution ordinance' will have any effect on the glare from all the traffic. Not to mention all the dust in the atmosphere. Maybe now would be a good time to drop him a note to let him know that there is an observatory in the area and what effect the proposed plan might have on it's operation.
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