Haleakala
southwest slope
called sacred

UH officials are asking
that radio and television
antennas be moved to the site

By Gart T. Kubota
Star-Bulletin

WAILUKU -- The southwest slope of Haleakala may seem like remote shrub land ideal for relocating radio and television antennas.

But some native Hawaiians say the southwest site at Kalepeamoa is sacred, and environmentalists and some state wildlife officials note it also contains native plants and any construction would mar its wilderness beauty.

"It changes the whole cultural structure of Haleakala," said Charles Maxwell, a member of Hui Ai Pohaku, a group supporting the preservation of Hawaiian values.

"It's spiritually and culturally interrupts the mana (power) of the area."

The antennas are now located at the mountaintop, but transmission frequencies interfere with space observatory work. University of Hawaii officials have faced pressure to reduce the antennas near the observatories.

A draft environmental assessment proposing to relocate the antennas has been submitted to the state Office of Environmental Quality Control.

The university's Institute for Astronomy, the lead agency recommending relocation, is reviewing comments from groups and government agencies.

Wesley Wong, the Maui district manager for the state Forestry and Wildlife Division, has recommended denying the proposal to relocate the site to Kalepeamoa.

Wong says Kalepeamoa is within the migration and nesting area of the endangered Hawaiian dark-rumped petrel ua'u and an antenna site would change the whole character of the skyline.

"It will make an area known for its scenery just another cluttered ridge top," Wong says.

Maxwell says the land is sacred and linked to the travel of the Goddess Pele from Tahiti to Haleakala and later to the Big Island.

Maxwell says Hawaiians should have been involved in a discussion of the relocation from the beginning because it is on state ceded land, one fifth of which is owned by native Hawaiians.

Sierra Club official Lucienne de Naie says the university should be developing an environmental impact statement fully evaluating the proposal, rather than an abbreviated environmental assessment.

Michael Maberry, an official with the university's Institute of Astronomy, said transmission interference is expected to worsen in the near future, as television stations are required to switch to digital equipment before the year 2002.

Maberry said the relocation would involve consolidating and cutting the number of structures from some 20 antennas to four towers.

Maberry said besides the southwest site, other locations identified by consultants do not enable television and radio stations to have as wide a coverage for viewers. But he said no decision has been made on relocating the antennas.

"Because any action we take on this environmental assessment will touch the lives of tens of thousands of people on Windward Oahu, Molokai and the Big Island, we are very carefully evaluating all of our options," Maberry said.