Further Mauna Kea development violates cultural rights and threatens natural resources
A group of Native Hawaiian cultural practitioners and environmentalists have delivered a list of demands regarding the proposed Thirty-Meter Telescope (TMT) project and overall management of Mauna Kea to Governor David Ige. The demands are based on solid evidence that the TMT project would both violate cultural rights guaranteed to Native Hawaiian cultural practitioners and threaten the preservation of natural resources within a conservation district—both are constitutionally-protected.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) conducted the first and only federal Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) in the history of astronomy development on Mauna Kea for the Outrigger Telescopes project, publishing its findings in 2005. A federal court found that an older, original NASA Environmental Assessment (EA) was inadequate. The NASA EIS findings concluded that “From a cumulative perspective, the impact of past, present, and reasonably foreseeable future activities on cultural and biological resources is substantial, adverse, and significant.”
The NASA environmental findings mean that neither TMT nor any other development on Mauna Kea can be approved without being in violation of the Mauna Kea Conservation District (MKCD) rules and regulations. Hawaiʻi Administrative Rule (HAR) §13-5-30(c)(4): “The proposed land use will not cause substantial adverse impact to existing natural resources within the surrounding area, community or region.”
The state itself has already found that both the Hawaiʻi State Department of Land & Natural Resources (DLNR) and the University of Hawaiʻi (UH) have failed to protect the natural and cultural resources of Mauna Kea. A 1998 State Audit of the Management of Mauna Kea and the Mauna Kea Science Reserve found that ”Both the university and [DLNR] failed to develop and implement adequate controls to balance the environmental concerns with astronomy development” (p. 34, 15).
UH claims that changes have been made to correct the many violations and failings enumerated in the report, but the cultural practitioners and environmentalists petitioning Governor Ige say nothing substantive has changed regarding the management of Mauna Kea. Now, this group is asking Ige to take specific action to restore the balance between the appropriate use and the conservation of Mauna Kea that UH’s mismanagement and overexploitation has undone. Here’s what they’re asking the governor to do:
No additional construction on Mauna Kea. Advise the Hawaiʻi State Board of Land & Natural Resources (BLNR) to permit no further construction, permitting, or leasing of Mauna Kea lands; and advise the UH Board of Regents to require the TMT Observatory Corporation to halt construction. These actions are particularly appropriate pending the full judicial resolution of the pending appeal of the BLNR’s conservation district use permit (CDUP) for the construction of the TMT and the ongoing environmental review of the state’s general lease agreement (S-4191) with UH for the use of Mauna Kea.
Refuse to accept UH’s proposal for a new general lease and the related Environmental Impact Statement Preparation Notice (now out for public comment) pending the full judicial resolution of the appeal of BLNR’s conservation district use permit for the construction of the TMT.
Refuse to accept UH’s future final environmental impact statement (EIS) for a new master lease under gubernatorial authorities pursuant to HAR §§ 11-200-4(a)(1) and 11-23(a), unless UH fully demonstrates—without relying on putative “economic benefits” as mitigation—that no cumulative, substantial, adverse impacts to Mauna Kea cultural and natural resources from existing or future land uses will occur.
Create a community-based authority to manage Mauna Kea. This was the primary recommendation in “Mauna Kea – The Temple,” submitted by Mauna Kea Anaina Hou and the Royal Order of Kamehameha I to the BLNR. This hui of land managers would be composed of Native Hawaiian cultural practitioners, environmental conservationists, other rights-holders, government agencies (the DLNR, Office of Conservation and Coastal Lands, and the State Historic Preservation Division), Hawai’i county representatives, and other community stakeholders. To be called a community-based management authority, the members must be vetted and chosen by the community, and this entity must have decision-making authority. The current Office of Mauna Kea Management board members are appointed by the UH Hilo Chancellor and the current cultural advisory board, Kahu Kū Mauna, lacks decision-making power.
