Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 21, Number 9, 1 September 2004 — NASA releases draft EIS for Mauna Kea project [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

NASA releases draft EIS for Mauna Kea project

Public comments being accepted through Sept. 13 By Sterling Kini Wong NASA has released a draft of its environmental impact statement for the agency's controversial Outrigger Telescope Project planned for Mauna Kea. The draft EIS concludes that, while the Outrigger Project by itself is unlikely to have a substantial negative effect on the mountain, when the project is considered in the context of past and future astronomy developments, the cumulative impacts to cultural and biological resources are adverse. Native Hawaiian and environmental groups have opposed the $50-million project, whieh would involve building four to six 1.8meter telescopes on the 13,796-ft. mountain summit. They believe further development threatens the environment and cultural integrity of Mauna Kea, whieh is considered one of the most sacred places in Hawaiian

tradition and is now home to 12 telescopes, an antenna, a visitor station and a lodge. According to oral traditions, the summit was the meeting plaee of the gods Wākea and Papahānaumoku, ancestors of the Hawaiian people and the islands themselves. "We support astronomy on Mauna Kea," says Kealoha Pisciotta of Mauna Kea Anaina Hou, a community group that monitors the mountain. "But enough is enough. No more development on the summit." According to the draft EIS, on-site eonstruction and installation of the proposed telescopes would begin in 2005, and operation would start in 2007. The telescopes would work in tandem with the W.M. Keek Observatory's two existing 10-meter telescopes, whieh are the largest in the world, to search for planets around nearby stars. The report also provides the island of La Palma in Spain's Canary Islands as an alternative site to Mauna Kea. NASA's decision to initiate the EIS process stemmed from a U.S. district judge's 2003 ruling in a lawsuit filed on behalf of OHA that, in part, challenged the space agency's less rigorous environmental assess-

ment for the project. After the judge ruled that the assessment had to be revised, NASA decided instead to do the more comprehensive EIS. The draft EIS for the project is the first to examine the cumulative impacts of over 35 years of astronomy development on Mauna Kea and all new developments slated until 2033, when the University of Hawai'i's lease for the science reserve expires. In addition to the outrigger project, the draft EIS lists ten other proposed astronomy projects on Mauna Kea to be completed before the university's lease expires, See NASA on page 9

The summit of Mauna Kea, considered one of the most sacred places in Hawaiian tradition, is now home to 1 2 telescopes, with more planned.

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NASA from page 1 including road construction, the expansion of the visitor station and the installation of numerous antennae and telescopes. One of the proposed telescopes would be the 30meter Next Generation Large Telescope, whieh would be the largest in the world. According to the draft EIS, two areas that the outrigger project could have impacts on are cultural resources and the habitat of the wēkiu bug, whieh is only found on the summit of Mauna Kea and is a candidate for listing as an endangered species. The draft EIS states that the proposed project would destroy .019 acres of wēkiu habitat that was already disturbed by previous astronomy development. To reduce this impact, the EIS says, a Wēkiu Bug Mitigation Plan has been developed that calls for a scientist to monitor the wēkiu population monthly and for the restoration of habitat that is three times the size of the area that was impacted by development. According to the draft EIS, the wēkiu population decreased by 99.7 percent between 1982-1998, with climate change, astronomy development and other human activities being possible contributing factors. The document also states, however, that there is not enough information to determine whieh factor was most detrimental to the wēkiu population. While no archaeological and burial sites have been identified in the area of the proposed project, mitigation measures have been developed that acknowledge that these sites do exist elsewhere in the Mauna Kea Science Reserve, according to the report, whieh outlines procedures in case sites are discovered during construction. No Burial Treatment Plan has been drafted yet, however. In a 20-year study of Mauna Kea, an archaeologist identified 93 cultural sites, along with one confirmed and four possible burial sites, within the science reserve.

However, the draft EIS says that because the number of cultural sites on the mountain prior to development is unknown, the impact of 35 years of astronomy and other activities on Mauna Kea is unclear. The document does say that development has adversely affected Kūkahau'ula - the area of the summit's three cinder cones - whieh is eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places and has already been designated as a traditional cultural property. The proposed Outrigger Project would be built on Pu'u Hau'oki, one of the Kūkahau'ula cinder cones. However, the document says that because the Subaru and Keek telescopes are already there, the eonstruction of the outrigger telescopes add only a small increase in impact. OHA Native Rights Advocate Heidi Kai Guth said that while the increase in damage may seem small in comparison to what has already occurred on the mountain, "the increase is just that - an addition to the cumulative impacts. The purpose of examining the cumulative impact of a project is not to subtract previous impacts from the equation, but to show what the sum total will be with the addition of the potential future impacts." NASA held six public meetings on the draft EIS in August and early September and is accepting written comments on the document until Sept. 13. The document ean be viewed online at planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov/ Outrigger/outrigger_index.html. Written comments should be addressed to Dr. Carl B. Pilcher and sent via email to otpeis@nasa.gov, or mailed to: Office of Space Science, Code SZ NASA Headquarters 300 E Street, SW Washington, DC 20546-0001 For more information, eall NASA toll-free at 877-283-1977. ■