Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 19, Number 5, 1 May 2002 — OHA sues NASA, UH over Mauna Kea telescopes [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

OHA sues NASA, UH over Mauna Kea telescopes

By Naomi Sodetani OHA has filed a federal lawsuit against the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the University of Hawai'i's īnstitute for Astronomy to eompel an environmental impact statement before it ean proceed to build telescopes on Mauna Kea. The lawsuit, filed on April 22 in U.S. District Court in Honolulu, seeks an order to halt the federal agency's plans to fund, construct, install and operate six outrigger telescopes at the existing W.M. Keek Observatory at the summit of Mauna'Kea, island of Hawahi. OHA asks the court to force NASA to fully assess the impacts on cultural and natural resources resulting from its proposed development before proceeding with building "outrigger" telescopes six feet across that connect with, and extend the viewing capability of, the 33-ft.-wide Keek telescopes. The Outriggers Telescope Project is part of NASA's $45 million "Origins Project" whieh is looking for life on planets outside our solar system. OHA Chairwoman Haunani Apoliona expressed disappointment regarding NASA's refusal to complete an environmental impact statement of its own volition. 0HA's lawsuit follows NASA's recent publication of a final environmental assessment that the project will have "no significant impact" on Mauna Kea. "The Native Hawaiian community has clearly spoken on the issue of Mauna Kea," Apoliona said in a statement to the loeal and national

media, "īt is one of our most sacred cultural resources, The community has repeatedly told NASA that its project will have very damaging effects on this treasured resource, but NASA has simply ignored us, We felt we had no ehoiee but to file legal action, placing NASA and IFA on official legal notice that an EIS is required," Apoliona said OHA has "grave concerns" about the īnstimte for Astronomy using "NASA's inadequate environmental assessment for IFA purposes," to entrench its foothold on the 13,746 ft, high summit and further its activities through millions of dollars in contracts for research and technology development hinging on NASA's project, OHA is one of the 7 Native Hawaiian organizations that NASA consulted with in the Section 106 consultation process mandated by federal historic preservation law. Last month, four of the participating Hawaiian groups petitioned for a contested case hearing with the Department of

Land and Natural Resources, seeking to block NASA's Conservation District Use Application, 'īlio'ulaokalani, K-4.HEA, Mauna Kea Anaina Hou, and the Royal Order of Kamehameha ī also cite NASA's need to complete an EIS to mitigate potential impacts on burials, archaeological sites, groundwater, and natural environment in an area traditionally revered as the holy juncture between the heavens and earth, "We're delighted that OHA is helping to ehampion this cause to protect Mauna Kea," said Kealoha Pisciotta, founder of the Mauna Kea Anaina Hou, whieh has long opposed further development on the summ.it, The group represents cultural practitioners including those whose ancestors are buried on Mauna Kea, The fight over NASA's project is seen as a test case for future projects on the mountain, One telescope three times the size of Keek is now being designed at UC Santa Cruz and may be headed for Mauna Kea, NASA's is the first proposed under the new UH Mauna Kea Master Plan adopted in June 2000 by the UH Board of Regents over broad community opposition, The UH plan provides for the further expansion of Mauna Kea by at least 21 telescopes, Since 1968, the UH has held a dollar-per-year state lease for use of 11,270 acres of ceded land encompassing the massive Mauna Kea Science Reserve, A 1998 state audit report strongly criticized the UH and DLNR for poorly managing Mauna Kea lands and recommended that a full environmental impact statement be done, See MAUNA KEA on page 18

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HOW IT WILL LOOK — A cornputer grciphic renclering of NASA's proposecl outrigger telescopes cit Keek,

MAUNA KEA from page 1

OHA has hired the Honolulu law firm Alston Hunt Floyd & Ing to litigate the case. "As a federal agency, NASA must comply with federal environmental and historic preservation laws," said AHFI attorney David Forman, "The regulations clearly define impacts as inelusive — past, present and future, how it's all built up — to broadly measure how a proposed development will impact resources in the whole scheme of things." "Ironically, in their zeal to discover other life in the Universe," the OHA complaint notes, "the IFA and NASA are ignoring life on these islands, degrading Native Hawaiian cultural resources, and risking the extermination of species," including the Wēkiu bug, a candidate endangered species found nowhere else in the world, NASA and UH officials declined to comment on the lawsuit, ■