Haleakala TV
transmitter site may
satisfy critics

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Star-Bulletin staff

WAILUKU >> Major television stations in Hawaii are planning to hire consultants to determine if a site along the slopes of Haleakala could serve as a new broadcast transmission facility.

Michael Rosenberg, president of the Hawaii Television Broadcasters Association, said the potential transmission site is located near Poli Poli at about the 7,200-foot level, downhill from the initially selected site at Kalepeamoa.

Rosenberg said the association decided to look elsewhere because of widespread opposition to its use of Kalepeamoa -- which Hawaiians and environmentalists want preserved for its sacred history and nesting of endangered species.

He said the association seems to have community support for establishing the site at the new location known as "Ball Park."

Hawaiians with the group Hui Ai Pohaku said antennas at Kalepeamoa would have destroyed the spiritual essence of Haleakala, since the area was a part of the 1790 eruption and the path of the Hawaiian goddess Pele.

The area is also within the nesting area of the dark-rumped petrel, or ua'u.

TV stations in Hawaii currently use a site near the space observatory.

The stations have been asked to move because the TV signals sometimes interfere with space observatory work.