Michael Carnes wrote:

Thanks for checking on this Patrick. Of course the proof's in the pudding, but this is very encouraging. Speaking as a relative newcomer, I'm curious about Tooele having such strong lighting ordinances. What catalyzed them into being so forward-looking?

Actually SLAS had nothing to do with it. In fact the first some of us heard about it was when Bruce, Roger and I went to a Tooele county planning meeting about a totally unrelated subject and were surprised to see something on the agenda about light pollution. So we stuck around to see what that was all about. As they outlined the then proposed ordinance I can still remember my astonishment at the wording. You'd of thought it was something SLAS or someone from IDS had written. And it just kept getting better. We were sure it would get voted down and were stunned at a later meeting when it passed with only very minor opposition. Then we were sure it would just be ignored but when I started seeing new highway light fixtures with full cut off shielding and billboards with light shining down I started to feel encouraged. But the thing with Wal Mart the other night really surprised me. The ground where it is being built is in Grantsville and therefore not covered by Tooele county laws. But when I spoke with the county engineer this morning she said the county managed to get involved there too adding "don't worry, we look out for you guys too". Of course, I still don't believe that the developers and sign companies are making these changes just to protect the night skies. I really do think that it's finally starting to sink in that efficient lighting is cheaper lighting. And cheaper lighting contributes to a profitable bottom line. so they save some money and we get better skies. Good trade. I liken it to the folks at Kennecott. Decades ago when I lived in Elko I'd occasionally come to SLC and see the awful pollution being emitted by those two tiny stacks they used to have. Eventually, though, they put in the monster stack that's there today and started scrubbing most of the pollutants out of its emission, not just for environmental reasons but a byproduct of the process is train car loads of nitric acid that they now sell (drive by the smelter most any day and you'll see grundles of white tanker cars sitting there labeled "nitric acid".) So they make some $$$ and our air is cleaner. Good trade. Patrick