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The first public meetings in a campaign that seeks to breathe new life into the stalled Thirty Meter Telescope begin this week on Hawaii island.
The National Science Foundation will hold four meetings on consecutive nights Tuesday through Friday to hear the public’s views on what alternatives and environmental impacts should be studied when it conducts its proposed environmental impact statement.
If everything goes well for the $2.65 billion telescope proposal, it will score hundreds of millions of federal dollars that will help enable long-delayed construction near the summit of Mauna Kea.
However, the same anti-TMT forces that helped throw up roadblocks in the courts and on the mountain over the past seven years are expected to make their presence known at the meetings.
In addition, U.S. Rep. Kai Kahele, D-Hawaii, has written a letter urging the NSF to delay the environmental review until the new Mauna Kea Stewardship and Oversight Authority, approved by the state Legislature and signed into law by Gov. David Ige, is in place in 2023.
The authority’s board is expected to include a mix of Native Hawaiians, cultural practitioners and representatives of the state and other institutions.
“The disrespect shown to the land surrounding the summit of Mauna Kea over decades has led to a painful, long-simmering impasse between special interests and Native Hawaiians,” Kahele wrote. “Hence, we have to reset the dialogue and ensure that Mauna Kea is governed by a new group of stewards.”
Native Hawaiian activist Andre Perez said the NSF is ignoring what the vast majority of Native Hawaiians want — and that is no TMT.
“It’s clear they don’t have a clue about the self-determination of the Hawaiian people,” he said. “They can’t take no for an answer.”
Perez, who was arrested on the mountain trying to stop TMT construction crews in 2015, said the will of the people was demonstrated during the eight-month occupation of the mountain in 2019.
“The fact that they still want to come back for more consultations shows that they are exposing themselves. They are trying to manufacture consent, and we know it. It’s bordering on delusional. The Hawaiian community will never agree to their telescope,” he said.
But Richard Ha, who is part-Native Hawaiian and a longtime supporter of the TMT, said many people, including Native Hawaiians, back the project and hope it will bring many benefits to the island.
“Mauna Kea is the best location to site a telescope in the world,” he said.
Plans to build the TMT — expected to be one of the world’s most powerful telescopes — were put on hold in 2015 when construction vehicles were blocked by protesters on Mauna Kea, and the project was ultimately halted by the state Supreme Court.
In October 2018 the high court gave the international consortium planning the TMT the green light to proceed with construction, but the plan was thwarted again in 2019 when protesters blocked access to the road leading to the summit.
In 2021 a report of the U.S. astronomy community’s decadal survey concluded that the TMT and its sister proposal, the Giant Magellan Telescope, which is planned for Chile, are critical priorities for American ground-based astronomy and recommended that the NSF invest in at least one and ideally both of the two extremely large telescope projects.
In July, NSF officials said they decided to launch the environmental review process for TMT after conducting an informal outreach campaign for more than a year during which they talked to more than 150 people and received 120 written comments.
The plan calls for the preparation of an environmental impact statement that complies with the National Environmental Policy Act and a formal consultation with Native Hawaiians as called for in Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act.
The process is expected to take two years to complete and feature numerous public hearings and meetings.
Meanwhile, the first Mauna Kea telescope to make way for the TMT has received the necessary permits from Hawaii County and the state to begin the physical deconstruction of the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory.
The Mauna Kea Master Plan set a limit of nine operating astronomy facilities on the mountain by 2033, which means five of the 14 astronomy sites will be closed permanently.
The first phase of the $4 million Caltech decommissioning and restoration project will commence this summer with Goodfellow Bros. as general contractor. It is expected to be completed by the end of the year.
Although work to restore the site is expected to be complete in 2023, Caltech will continue to report results of restoration monitoring through 2026, officials said.
GET INVOLVED
The National Science Foundation will host four inperson public scoping meetings on Hawaii island from 6 to 8 p.m. Tuesday – Friday:
>> Tuesday: Grand Naniloa Doubletree by Hilton Hotel, Crown Room, 93 Banyan Drive, Hilo
>> Wednesday: Naalehu Community Center, 95-5635 Hawaii Belt Road, Naalehu
>> Thursday: Outrigger Kona Resort & Spa, Kaleiopapa Convention Center, 78-128 Ehukai St., Kailua-Kona
>> Friday: Kahilu Town Hall, 67-1182 Lindsey Road, Kamuela
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