When new Buc-ee’s locations open up, cars are often lined up to get into the parking lots of the beloved gas-station convenience stores. However, some people have been raising concerns about the impact of the establishments, including those worried about sea turtles.
At the start of this month, a brand-new Buc-ee’s opened up in Brunswick, Ga., located along the Atlantic coast. While visitors were able to enjoy Buc-ee’s staples such as “the world’s cleanest bathrooms,” Texas barbeque, homemade fudge, kolaches, Beaver Nuggets and more, lights installed near the new location were already causing controversy.
According to CNN, lights now blazing at a previously dark stretch of I-95’s Exit 42 in Brunswick were installed before the Buc-ee’s project began and the store isn’t responsible for them, citing Glynn County communications director Brittany Dozier. Yet, a July 1 article from The Current said Brian Scarbrough, a Georgia Department of Transportation maintenance engineer wrote in an email that High Mast Lights in the area were to remain on at night for “the safety of the traveling public at these intersections due to the anticipated high volume of traffic with the opening of Buc-ee’s.”
Dozier also said the county wanted the lights on for public safety reasons.
Light from the fixtures extends beyond just the Buc-ee’s property, even beyond the highway and on to Little St. Simons Island, CNN said. That’s where moonlight usually guides newly hatched loggerhead sea turtles from beaches and into the ocean.
Scott Coleman, the ecological manager of Little St. Simons Island the new lights are drawing the hatchlings inland instead.
“Rather than crawling toward the ocean, the turtle hatchlings are crawling back behind the dunes, and in some places, they never find their way to the water, so they don’t survive,” Coleman said, per The Current. “In other cases, they may be more easily picked off from predators like raccoons or like ghost crabs, or the next morning it might be gulls and other birds.”
CNN said Catherine Ridley, vice president of education and communication at One Hundred Miles explained unshielded artificial lights can override the turtles’ natural cues. Mark Dodd, a senior wildlife biologist at Georgia’s Department of Natural Resources also said unshielded lights are capable of misorienting hatchlings, according to The Current.
“Beachfront business owners and residents are also urged to reduce lighting of the beach during nesting season in order to avoid attracting hatchlings, who mistake the artificial lights for moonlight and are drawn away from the ocean,” according to the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.
It said that Dodd has requested that state and local agencies either turn off or shield the lights near Brunswick’s Buc-ee’s. Officials said that the lights would not be changed by the start of loggerhead hatching season, which began around 10 days ago. Scarborough told Dodd the lights are needed due to installation. He said that street lights should be installed sometime next month and that the High Mast Lights would be evaluated at that time.
“The concern raised at this specific location has sparked conversations about how to create program-level guidance for lighting along the coast,” Jill Nagel, a communications officer for GDOT, also told The Current. She said the department currently addresses the issues on a case-by-case basis and that it is working on plans to develop “coastal lighting considerations and guidance as it relates to protected
In addition to Georgia, groups in other states have also pushed back against Buc-ee’s due to various concerns. In May, the North Carolina Environmental Justice Network announced that a new report had been released about the chain’s impact on local communities.
“The public might not be aware of it, but there’s a substantial body of scientific research on the health hazards presented by mega gas stations like Buc-ee’s,” said Sue Sturgis, an environmental journalist and energy policy researcher based in Raleigh, North Carolina, per a press release from the organization.
According to The Current, Buc-ee’s did not respond to multiple requests for comment regarding the lights in Brunswick.