Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 26, Number 8, 1 August 2009 — Mauna Kea selected by Thirty Meter Telescope board [ARTICLE]

Mauna Kea selected by Thirty Meter Telescope board

By ī. Ilihia Ginnsnn Publicatiūns Editnr The group looking to build the Thirty Meter Telescope has selected Mauna Kea over Cerro Armazones in Chile as the plaee that they would like to build the advanced observatory, the group announced on July 21. Consideration of Mauna Kea's atmospheric conditions, low average temperatures, very low humidity, and the opportunity to work in eoncert with the partners' existing facilities on Mauna Kea went into the decision, whieh will "further expand the opportunities for discoveries," said Edward Stone, Caltech's Morrisroe Professor of Physics and vice ehainnan of the TMT board. The trustees of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs on July 2 voted to support the selection of Mauna Kea for the TMT, in consideration of the various cultural and eeonomie fac-

tors that would be affected by the observatory. TMT's timetable has construction beginning in 201 1, but there are some regulatory hurdles that may postpone that construction. The decision comes while many await the development of a comprehensive plan to manage the Mauna Kea summit. That process must be completed before any new land use permits ean be issued. The state land board this year conditionally accepted a plan that the University of Hawai'i submitted, but required that four subplans be completed to address eoncerns absent in the submitted plan. Also adding uncertainty to the situation are six petitioners who want the land board to reconsider their acceptance of that plan. As of press time, those petitioners were awaiting a decision on their legal standing from the state attomey general. Should the regulatory hurdles take longer to clear than TMT's timetable

allows for, the project will go on in Hawai'i, said Henry Yang, TMT board chair and chancellor of the University of Cahfornia at Santa Barbara. "We have eome a long way over two years working through these processes, and we have eome this far. We have made a conscious decision, and we have not considered alternatives. This is the way we're gonna go," he said. "We invested several years to learn about the scientific, cultural, and legal issues on Mauna Kea," Yang continued. "We don't believe this is a turning back point." Some Native Hawaiians oppose the notion of building TMT on Mauna Kea, saying that the sacred summit has enough telescopes as it is, and that education through desecration isn't really education at all. Kealoha Pisciotta is the leader of Mauna Kea Anaina Hou, an organization that has long objected to further damage of Mauna Kea and the

sidestepping of environmental law. "Environmental law is based on good faith," Pisciotta said. "If they have a site to conduct their science with less of an enviromnental impact - in this case, Chile - then the law expects them to go to Chile." Pisciotta, whose group is one of the petitioners contesting the state land board's acceptance of the Mauna Kea management plan, said that in selecting Mauna Kea before the environmental impact statement is even finalized, the TMT organization is ignoring the law. "This is Superferry all over again," Pisciotta said. Other Native Hawaiians have been working to garner support for TMT in the hopes that Mauna Kea would be selected, for the jobs that it would offer and the community benefits that it would fund. Richard Ha, owner of Hāmākua Springs farm, has been supportive of TMT from the get-go. "You don't really get a sense of what the implications are until they announee the selection. The implications are huge.

I think, in the terms of education, the ability to uplift our people," he said. "We have the opportunity to expand the minds of our keiki with the funds that TMT has conunitted to our eommunity. Education is the great equalizer," Ha said, referring to $1 million that will be given to educational programs on Hawai'i Island annually as a community benefits package. Higher education will also see a benefits package, and a workforce pipeline program will be developed to prepare loeal youth for jobs at TMT. Govemor Linda Lingle also lauded the selection of Mauna Kea for TMT. "Today's decision to build the Thirty Meter Telescope atop Mauna Kea marks an extraordinary step forward in the state's continuing efforts to establish Hawai'i as a center for global innovation for the future," she said. The $1 hillion TMT is a partnership of the California Institute of Technology, the University of California, and ACURA, an organization of Canadian universities. The Nahonal Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) is also a collaborator. ■

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