Authors

Katrina Umstead

Afraid for the Dark: Regulating Light Pollution Under the Clean Water Act

Abstract

Currently, light pollution is only regulated at the state and local level. However, not all states implement legislation to mitigate the adverse effects of ALAN [Artificial light at night]. Nineteen states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico have implemented laws to reduce light pollution. In states without such laws, or in federal waters, light-intensive activities remain unchecked. The rapid increase in light pollution in recent years illustrates the inadequacies of existing state and local regulatory schemes and calls for a new understanding of ALAN as a pollutant to marine ecosystems.

This Note argues that the existing tools in the Clean Water Act (CWA, or “the Act”) provide authority for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to regulate light pollution and preserve the integrity of the nation’s waters. Part I examines the existing body of research on ALAN’s damage to marine and wetland ecosystems. Part II surveys the insufficiency of existing state and local regulation of light pollution. Part III addresses the need for federal regulation of light pollution through ALAN’s classification as a pollutant under the CWA. Part III also confronts counterarguments to recent concerns about regulatory overreach in the wake of West Virginia v. EPA.

This abstract was taken from the author's introduction.

Repository Citation

Katrina Umstead, Afraid for the Dark: Regulating Light Pollution Under the Clean Water Act, 65 Wm. & Mary L. Rev. 1533 (2024), https://scholarship.law.wm.edu/wmlr/vol65/iss6/6