HILO - Federal budget cuts are making it increasingly difficult for the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory to protect lives and property, the head of the observatory says.
HILO - Federal budget cuts are making it increasingly difficult for the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory to protect lives and property, the head of the observatory says.
Largely because of the difficulties, scientist in charge David Clague said he will leave the observatory and its parent organization, the U.S. Geological Survey, at month's end.
The observatory now has "blind spots," he said. Eight of the observatory's 52 seismic monitoring stations are out of order.
Beginning in 1983, lava flows went south and destroyed 184 buildings. If the main vent had been just half a football field to the north, the flows would have gone north and threatened thousands of homes.
"We don't think it's a high probability, but it's such a scary prospect we like to keep on top of it," he said.
County Civil Defense chief Harry Kim said he depends on the observatory for volcano and earthquake information. "I don't have any expertise in these things," he said.
For the last seven months, the observatory, like most of the government, has been operating without a budget, Clague said. If anything breaks, they have no money to fix it.
The observatory is down from a staff of 29 to 22. Most don't have time to think about their data.
"We're relying more and more on what we knew before, rather than on learning new things," Clague said.
The Geological Survey budget for volcanic hazards across the country is $20 million, including $2 million for the observatory. President Clinton's budget for this year calls for cutting $2.5 million from the total.
The Republican Contract with America called for eliminating the entire Geological Survey, Clague said.
Volcanoes is a small part of what the survey does, he said. The biggest part is monitoring the nation's groundwater. Fears about the safety of drinking water are what have consumers everywhere buying bottled water.
Kim thinks the danger to the observatory is real. "When you cut down on personnel and maintenance funds, it doesn't take long for a program to die," he said.
Even when funding was more secure in 1990, the observatory didn't have enough people as lava burned through Kalapana homes, he said.
"These guys were with me on a 24-hour basis. They were stretched to the max," he said.
Clague, who arrived at the Hawaii observatory in 1991, is joining the privately funded Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute in California, an organization that is growing while the observatory is shrinking.
Arnold Okamura, the observatory's second in command, lauded Clague's helpfulness with young geologists and called the impending departure a great loss. "He made tremendous improvements here. We will really suffer because of his leaving."
Clague said the observatory is the only survey site in the country with young workers because no new staffers are being hired.
"When I go back to (the California-based regional office at) Menlo Park, I'm the kid," he said.
Clague is 47.