Lee Cataluna: Thirty Meter Telescope debate not over with recent ruling

In October the Hawaii Supreme Court ruled in favor of the state’s approval of a conservation district use permit to build the $1.4 billion Thirty Meter Telescope on Mauna Kea, and it may have seemed like that was the end of the matter.

It wasn’t.

Then last week the court denied a motion to reconsider the decision. That might make it seem like it’s green-light-go from here.

It isn’t.

Questions still loom as large as the mountain itself on issues that could reach beyond Mauna Kea, potentially to every beach and valley and hillside in Hawaii.

In his dissenting opinion, Justice Michael Wilson, former head of the state Department of Land and Natural Resources, lit into the “degradation principal” being used by the state to grant a permit for the massive construction project. This principal, at its core, says that the land on Mauna Kea is already so damaged from previous development — that is, the other telescopes — that the TMT couldn’t possibly do any further harm.

“The BLNR substitutes a new standard for evaluating the impacts of proposed land uses, a standard that removes the protection to conservation land. … Under this new principle of natural resource law, one of the most sacred resources of the Hawaiian culture loses its protection because it has previously undergone substantial adverse impact from prior development of telescopes. The degradation principle portends environmental and cultural damage to cherished natural and cultural resources. It dilutes or reverses the foundational dual objectives of environmental law — namely, to conserve what exists (or is left) and to repair environmental damage,” Wilson wrote.

The state Supreme Court’s decision has the potential to affect all manner of development in Hawaii with the idea that, well, it’s already not pristine, it can’t get any worse than it already is — a frightening idea that could lead to the future paving-over of some of Hawaii’s most special natural and cultural resources.

Another looming issue is that the University of Hawaii’s master lease for the land TMT would occupy expires in 14 years. It doesn’t seem prudent for construction of a 180-foot-high telescope and observation facility to begin when the last years on the 1968 lease are running out. TMT currently forecasts completion of the telescope in July 2027. The lease expires in 2033. Maybe the assumption by the major players is that the state will gladly slide UH another long lease to keep everything going, but that is not a guarantee in a place known for government fumbling and citizen activism. Remember the moral of Superferry?

Today at noon, faculty and students from Oahu-­based UH campuses will gather in front of Hawaii Hall at UH Manoa to call on UH President David Lassner, the Board of Regents and the TMT corporation to terminate all agreements for the construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope and for UH to reject proposed Mauna Kea Administrative Rules, which they say would restrict Native Hawaiian spiritual and cultural practices on the land. The organizer of the event is UH-Manoa Political Science Department Chairwoman Noelani Goodyear-Kaʻopua. Of the 57 people arrested during protests of TMT on Mauna Kea, many were UH faculty, staff and students.

All of these unresolved, un-ignorable issues and this continued dissent, even within UH, lead straight to the 2019 legislative session, now just weeks away, and Sen. Kaiali‘i Kahele, who has doggedly continued community meetings and outreach to build support for changing the way Mauna Kea has been managed and mismanaged. Kahele is again putting forward legislation to restructure the management of Mauna Kea, taking responsibility away from UH and putting it in the hands of a governing board made up of Native Hawaiians, cultural practitioners, environmental experts and business leaders. There is also growing support for a comprehensive audit of the way the master lease has been handled, which makes a easy re-up for the current lease seem less likely.

There are still so many looming questions, and many reminders that there are more than two sides to this issue. It’s not just “Build TMT” or “A‘ole TMT.” Even if the massive project never gets built, questions about the current management of the land remain.

Reach Lee Cataluna at 529-4315 or lcataluna@staradvertiser.com.