Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 26, Number 7, 1 July 2009 — Mauna Kea telescope debate continues [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Mauna Kea telescope debate continues

TMTs draft EIS released By ī. Ilihia Giansan Publicatiūns Editar An environmental document exploring the possibilities for constructing the most advanced telescope to study the universe on Hawai'i's Mauna Kea has been released, detailing the potential consequences - enviromnental, eommunity, eeonomie and cultural - of locating the proposed $1.2 hillion telescope on Mauna Kea. Public comment on the draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Thirty Meter Telescope will be accepted until July 7. The hefty document also addresses impacts on the Hale Pōhaku facility halfway up the mountain, as well as the construction of a headquarters in Hilo and a satellite office in Wainiea. The governor will decide whether to accept or reject the hnal EIS, whieh is one of several approvals needed to build TMT in Hawai'i. Other approval processes are through the State Historic Preservation Division, the

Office of Mauna Kea Management, and the Board of Land and Natural Resources. While the most powerful existing observatory on earth - the twin 10-meter Keek telescopes on Mauna Kea - ean see faraway objects as they were about 12 billion years ago, TMT's increased light-gathering abilities will offer a glimpse back to about 13.3 billion years ago, just after scientists theorize the Big Bang occurred. "The potential for what we ean find is astonishing," said Anneila Sargent, an astronomy professor at the California Institute of Technology, one of the partners building TMT. Proponents also say the telescope's $1.2 hillion cost would breathe life into Hawai'i Island's languishing eonstruction industry. Onee constructed, the observatory promises 140 permanent jobs, a workforce pipeline program to get Hawai'i residents into those jobs, a higher-education benefits package and a $1 million a year eommunity benefits package. But at a June 17 public hearing in Hilo, Kealoha Pisciotta of Mauna Kea Anaina Hou said that jobs and science

aren't worth disrespecting Mauna Kea and the law. "If jobs are a eoncern, Target in Kona will offer twice as many jobs as TMT," she said referring to the large retailer set to open this month. She also criticized the project moving forward without a comprehensive management plan in plaee for Mauna Kea as ordered by Circuit Judge Glenn Hara in a previous case regarding observatory expansion. "This EIS is most importantly disrespectful to the people of Hawai'i ... and of the law." Tom Peek of Volcano, a former Mauna Kea guide, said the draft EIS underestimates the "TMT noise problem by applying an urban noise standard to a revered mountaintop - that was previously near silent - in order to find a less-than-significant impact." Native Hawaiians are split on the issue. "I look at this as a Native Hawaiian, who always revered voyaging and navigating as sacred sciences, and I look at Mauna Kea as a sacred plaee, a wahi pana," said Hawai'i County Mayor Billy Kenoi, who said that he

encourages a thoughtful, respectful dialogue between the different sides of the issue. "It's very appropriate that sacred science is studied in a sacred plaee. We ean do it right." As part of TMT's presentation on astronomy in Hawaiian culture, Kahalelaukoa Rice told the crowd that "the (Hawaiian) culture was here before, and the culture will be here after. We need to look at today," she said, underscoring the need for jobs and eeonomie development for the island. Former OHA Trustee Moanikeala Akaka questioned the kinds of jobs that TMT hopes to offer locals. "You tell us our kids will be able to fill the jobs on the mountain. What as?" she asked. "Bus drivers, tour guides and janitors - respectable as they may be - who will cater to the foreign scientists?" Keōmailani Van Gough, who opposed constructing TMT on Mauna Kea, said: "I know this technology is very alluring to the kids, but culturally, our children and navigators and SeeTMĪ on page lū

ON THE WEB 1 īhe draft EIS is available online, along with a summary of its eontents and the opportunity to L Ok, comment before July 7. Visit tmt-hawaiieis.org.

1^1 www.oha.org/kwo

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kūpuna could just look up at the stars and go someplace. If you're looking up through a telescope, you're not looking around at home." But Iudi Steimnan of the Hawai'i Island Chamber of Commerce related the story of her own people to Mauna Kea, saying that buildings don't minimize the sanctity of a plaee. "Jerusalem is the holiest plaee for Jewish people. God told us that's where the temple should be," she said. The temple was later destroyed and a mosque built in its plaee. Despite that, Steinman said that Jewish people still pray outside the wall of the mosque. "That site is no less holy than it was when the temple was there," she said. If the TMT is not built on Mauna Kea, it will be built on Cerro Armazones, a remote peak in the Chile's Atacama Desert. The TMT board will decide whieh is the best site to pursue. The board will meet on July 20 and 21 in California to make that decision, said TMT site studies manager Sandra Dawson. The 856-page draft EIS was prepared by Parsons Brinckerhoff, and is being proposed by the University of Hawai'i as sub-landlord of the Mauna Kea Science Reserve. At the Hilo hearing, attendees asked how the ongoing process to develop a comprehensive management plan for the Mauna Kea summit will affect TMT, since no new landuse permits ean be issued until a plan is in plaee. As of press time, petitions contesting the Board of Land and Natural Resources' conditional acceptance of the plan were still awaiting a decision of standing by the state attorney general. The TMT organization stressed that the project will comply with all applieahle rules and regulations, including those in the proposed comprehensive management plan. "Right now, we go forward independent of whatever happens with the CMP," said TMT board member Mike Bolte, director of the University of California's Liek Observatory. Other concerns related to the TMT's visual impact on Mauna Kea, whieh would be visible mostly from Waimea. Should the observatory dome be built using the same principles as the Keek observatory, it would stand ahnost twice as high as its 180-foot-high design, said Jim Hayes of Parsons Brinkerhoff. Also to be determined is the color of the dome: a reflective silver finish would be the least visible for most of the day with some glare in the morning and late afternoon, a white finish would be more visible when there is no snow on the mountain, and

a brown finish would be more apparent when there is snow on the mountain and would also require more electricity to eool the dome during the day. Concerns also included: » Whether a proposed access road for TMT staff would traverse existing trails within a sensitive cinder-cone habitat or cut through the Smithsonian Submillimeter Array and disturb an area of virgin lava. » The exclusion of the alternative Chile site in the draft EIS, whieh instead focused on building TMT on one of two sites on Mauna Kea or not building at all on Mauna Kea. Dawson, the TMT site studies manager, said that the purpose of this document, required under Hawai'i law, is to explore the possibihties for Mauna Kea. Similar documents related to building the observatory in Chile required under Chilean law have been filed there. » A perceived need for a federal EIS - more stringent than a state EIS - because the project received federal funding through the National Science Foundation. However, the funding is being used to develop the technology that will go into TMT and not for the construction of the observatory itself, said Bolte, the TMT board member. He said that it's up to the NSF to order a federal EIS. The Thirty Meter Telescope is a project of the TMT Observatory Corp„ a nonprofit partnership of the University of California, the California Institute of Technology and the Association of Canadian Universities for Research in Astronomy. The National Astronomical Observatory of Japan recently eame aboard as a collaborator and potential partner. UC, Caltech and the Japanese group are partners in existing observatories on Mauna Kea. Only the Canadian universities association, known by its acronym ACURA, has no presence on Mauna Kea, as Canada's participation in three Mauna Kea observatories is through the National Research Council, a government agency. ■

A gaggle of Thirty Meter Telescope supporters lined Kamehameha Avenue in Hilo on June 1 2. Supporters included members of the university community, the business community, the construction industry and students. - Photo: ī. Ilihia Gionson