I'm not alone in saying that the July 12 Star-Bulletin opinion by IA Director Donald N.B. Hall was disappointing.
While promising to "clear up some of the misconceptions" about astronomy on the mountain, he skirted almost every major concern raised by Big Island residents and various groups, including the Sierra Club, Ka Lahui Hawaii, the Conservation Council for Hawaii and Hawaii's Thousand Friends.
Hall did try to address one deeply troubling concern - the building of 20 telescopes in violation of existing master plans. Those plans, adopted by the Board of Land and Natural Resources (BLNR) and the University's Board of Regents specifically limit the number of telescopes allowed before the year 2000 to 13 - 11 "major" and two "minor" (24-inch) telescopes. The 11 telescope limit was violated first by the Smithsonian's array of eight 6-meter telescopes and then by Gemini's 8-meter instrument.
Hall rationalized the Smithsonian violation by counting its eight telescopes as one, and by claiming that neither BLNR or anyone else "questioned this."
Of course, as soon as people discovered what had happened, they responded - not easy considering there have been no public hearings on these mammoth projects in more than a decade and no summit environmental impact statement since 1983.
Other concerns that Hall failed to address include the following:
IA successfully lobbied BLNR to deregulate the mountain. In March 1995, a new management plan was adopted which gutted the regulatory structure for monitoring and controlling the use of the mountain, including the required enforcement personnel. Those few responsibilities that survived were dumped on BLNR, which has no money to implement them. A decade earlier IA had accepted that regulatory responsibility in exchange for state permission to build all the telescopes thereafter, including Keck I, Keck II, Subaru, Smithsonian and Gemini.
The Subaru project recently destroyed one of two major wekiu bug habitats. Despite initial IA denials of such damage (including a May 1996 letter in National Geographic), Hall admitted last month that the destruction occurred and said he was "embarrassed" about it. Now Hall asserts that this wekiu bug habitat was "necessarily destroyed," apparently to cover for a decision he hid from the BLNR and the public. BLNR member Chris Yuen, in a letter to board chairman Mike Wilson, criticized IA as well as his own department for the irreparable damage. Yuen said the destruction "should not have happened if the IA had followed the 1983 EIS and our staff had properly reviewed the grading plan."
Mauna Kea is being considered for the National Science Foundation's (minimum) 40-telescope array. For at least a year, scientists have been evaluating the mountain's "seeing" conditions and other factors for siting this massive radio array. Only one other site in Chile is in contention with Mauna Kea. This would triple the number of telescopes on Mauna Kea - unless, like the Smithsonian, the astronomers decide to count all 40 as one.
Portions of Puu Poliahu were recently excavated during Smithsonian construction. The marring of this cinder cone, home to the legendary snow goddess and a sacred site to native Hawaiians, came to public light in a June editorial by an observatory employee.
Archaeological surveys promised by IA in 1985 remain unfinished - despite concerns from native Hawaiians, archaeologists and others - that burials may be disturbed during continued telescope construction. These concerns arise from long-standing oral histories which say that the summit of Mauna Kea is the burial ground of the highest born and most sacred ancestors. Nineteenth-century archaeological surveys also confirm that native Hawaiian burials were "commonplace" on the upper slopes of Mauna Kea.
The visitor information station at Hale Pohaku is still staffed only part-time. The management plan called for a full-time station, staffed by more than the two employees mentioned by Hall. A $200,000 21-inch telescope purchased years ago by the Legislature for public star-gazing remains unassembled, apparently due to lack of visitor program funding.
Hall's failure to address these issues raises a further concern about IA management of Mauna Kea's summit. Does this university department really have the knowledge, desire, commitment and respect for Mauna Kea necessary to fulfill the promises astronomers made long ago to the people of Hawaii?
It's not enough to say, as Hall did, "we have learned much from this scrutiny, and it has led us to redouble our efforts to be worthy stewards." Hawaii's citizens are now expecting something more than words.