PBPA, McDonald Observatory work on curbing light pollution from rigs

The McDonald Observatory in Fort Davis is seen in this undated photo. The McDonald Observatory in Fort Davis is seen in this undated photo. Photo: Photos Courtesy McDonald Observatory Photo: Photos Courtesy McDonald Observatory Image 1 of / 7 Caption Close PBPA, McDonald Observatory work on curbing light pollution from rigs 1 / 7 Back to Gallery

There has been a surge in oil activity in the Delaware Basin over the past few years, and pollution concerns have crept up, but not in an obvious place.

Drilling rigs operate 24 hours a day in one of the darkest places on the planet, and their lights have hampered progress at the University of Texas at Austin’s McDonald Observatory, nestled in the Davis Mountains on the edge of the Permian.

“We started seeing the glow from all of the oil and gas activity in the Permian Basin showing up around 2010,” McDonald Observatory public affairs specialist and veteran astronomer Bill Wren said in a phone interview. “We noticed that looking up the I-20 corridor northeast from where we are, the horizon was starting to brighten and realized there was a major boom going on.”

Until recently, the only observable light was from El Paso and Juarez, Mexico, which are 160 miles away, well-beyond the visible horizon. “Now it is dwarfed by the Permian Basin,” Wren said.

Light pollution on the horizon has made peering into deep space difficult for the astronomers at the observatory, and a few years ago, they reached out to local municipalities and oil industry organizations in an effort to find a resolution. The Permian Basin Petroleum Association has since informed its 900-plus members and is working with the observatory.

“We’ve entered into a partnership and established an advisory group between members of the McDonald Observatory, the University of Texas at Austin and the PBPA to talk about ways to protect the dark-skies environment in West Texas,” PBPA President Ben Shepperd said. “We have an important asset in McDonald Observatory, but with the encroachment of not only oil and gas activity in the Delaware Basin, but the growth in population centers, we’re looking for ways that we can manage our activities that will decrease the lighting.”

There is now an advisory group, and they met officially for the first time Tuesday at UT Austin to discuss the Dark Skies Initiative, which works to reach out to oil companies and inform them about light pollution and what steps can be taken to make life better for not only the observatory, but for rig operators and their crews.

Among solutions that already have been implemented are putting shrouds on lights and pointing them down below the horizon. By doing so, “you actually gain light on the ground,” Wren said. “It’s a win-win deal.”

Shepperd said shrouding and re-aiming lights is already apparent in other applications.

“If you’ve ever seen a drilling rig at night, there’s light shining everywhere. Many of our companies have already taken steps to point their lights below the horizon. You’ve already seen this in a Wal-Mart parking lot. If the light is pointing downward, it just shines on the store and the parking lot. If it’s aimed at 90 degrees, it lights up the sky.

Also suggested is replacing light fixtures with those using LED bulbs, which Wren said will have economic benefits in the long run.

“If you modernize and you toss out your legacy fixtures -- old metal halide and high-pressure sodium lights -- and go to LEDs, you’re saving 80-plus percent in terms of fuel consumption. It has a snowball effect. If you’re consuming only 20 percent of the fuel you were before to light, you don’t have to truck in as much fuel as often, which means you don’t have to maintain the roads as much. You end up saving money in lots of ways that aren’t immediately apparent.”

Wren said a lot of organizations are on board with the initiative. Culberson, Reeves and Pecos counties about three years ago issued letters to a few hundred operators who had drilling permits to inform them about McDonald Observatory and lighting ordinances designed to protect dark skies. The PBPA followed suit, as did the Railroad Commission in February.

The advisory group agreed to meet three times a year: at UT Austin, in Midland in November and at the observatory in the spring. In the meantime, all involved will formulate recommended lighting practices.

McDonald Observatory has about 45 employees, with about 80 people total when families are included. It’s a satellite campus of UT Austin and even has its own campus police. There are currently four resident astronomers who run the Hobby-Eberly telescope, the third-largest in the world.

The observatory’s first telescope was built it 1939. It was a 2.1-meter telescope that didn’t have to compete much with lights in the Permian. The 10-meter Hobby-Eberly telescope, which came online in 1997, has greatly increased what astronomers can observe.

“When it comes to cutting-edge astronomy, there’s no substitute for aperture in terms of light-gathering ability,” Wren said.

Dark skies are needed, however.

“We’re just trying to formally engage and work on these issues,” Shepperd said, adding that the observatory and West Texas’ dark skies are “a treasure worth saving.”

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