Agency reaches out for funding controversial TMT project

The National Science Foundation has launched what it’s calling an informal outreach effort to Hawaii in a move to help the agency determine whether to fund the stalled Thirty Meter Telescope project.

The effort by the nation’s top funder of basic research could lead to a huge influx of cash for the cutting-edge astronomy project, which is now estimated to cost $2.4 billion.

But it also would trigger a regulatory process that could add two years or more to a construction timeline that is already far behind schedule.

“NSF understands that potential construction of TMT on Maunakea is a sensitive issue and plans to engage in early and informal outreach efforts with stakeholders, including Native Hawaiians, to listen to and seek an understanding of their viewpoints,” the agency said in a statement posted on its website.

“If NSF ultimately initiates a formal federal environmental review process, this advance outreach would serve as a precursor to it,” the statement said.

In an effort to obtain the extra funding, the TMT has teamed up with the Giant Magellan Telescope, which is planned for Chile, and the U.S. National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory to propose a U.S. Extremely Large Telescope Program.

The partnership proposes to offer American astronomers viewing coverage of 100% of the sky in both the Northern (TMT) and Southern (GMT) hemispheres.

Earlier this year, TMT and GMT jointly made a presentation to the U.S. National Academies Astro2020 panel, which will produce a series of recommendations to projects for future funding.

TMT also recently submitted a planning and design proposal to the NSF in hopes obtaining major funding to help make up for the addition $1 billion that has been added to the cost of the project due to ongoing construction delays, inflation and other costs.

Under the partnership proposal, the National Science Foundation would contribute $850 million to each telescope project.

If funding is ultimately approved, it will trigger the creation of a federal environmental impact statement and National Historic Preservation Act Section 106 consultation, a process that could last two years or more.

“It will lead to very significant outreach, another opportunity to listen and learn and a renewed opportunity to seek solutions that are acceptable to all in Hawaii,” Michael Bolte, UC-Santa Cruz astronomy professor and TMT board member, told the California Board of Regents last month.

Asked for comment, TMT Vice President Gordon Squires offered the following statement:

“TMT continues to assess a number of factors impacting its timeline and schedule, including the current pandemic. We are also awaiting the results of the U.S. Decadal Survey next year, which will set the priorities for the astronomy community for the next 10 years. This is one important step of many toward possibly seeking major funding from the NSF. In the meantime, TMT and its partners continue to do the work we can safely do in the partner countries.”

State House Speaker Scott Saiki urged anyone with an opinion on the TMT to contact the NSF.

“TMT is a consequential project for Hawai‘i. It is critical that all persons and organizations that have a position on TMT contact NSF so that their opinions can be heard,” Saiki said in a news release.

The NSF can be contacted about the TMT project by email at: AST-MK@nsf.gov.

The last time a federal EIS was required of a project on Mauna Kea was in 2003 for the proposed NASA-funded Keck Telescope Outriggers Project.

The Outriggers proposal was delayed for three years and ultimately withdrawn following challenges by the Mauna Kea Hui, the same group that is fighting the TMT.

Kealoha Pisciotta, Mauna Kea Hui leader, has said her group and others who oppose the TMT are prepared to challenge the federal environmental documents if they are done poorly.

But Thayne Currie, a Mauna Kea astronomer and TMT supporter, said federal financial support of the project is a separate issue that doesn’t have to prevent construction from starting as soon as possible. The TMT, he said, already has earned the right to proceed in the state of Hawaii.

“It’s important for the NSF to look at the record of the 10 years of legal process and the facts of that process. If it does that, there should be no problem,” Currie said, adding that, “This is the most carefully considered project in the history of Hawaii.”

Construction of the TMT was blocked for the first time in 2015, when scores of largely Native Hawaiian protesters prevented work vehicles from traveling up the access road, and the state Supreme Court later invalidated the project’s work permit.

After gaining the right to proceed with construction a second time, the project was stopped again last year when hundreds, and later thousands, of protesters blocked Mauna Kea Access Road near Daniel K. Inouye Highway.

Last month the TMT announced that the project’s construction start was being delayed until spring, in part because the coronavirus pandemic was helping to complicate the logistics of the effort.