Hi All,
I attended the meeting in Kohala last night.
The program was broken down as follows:
5:00 - 6:00 Open House
6:00 - 6:35 Presentations (by Sandra Dawson (EIS manager) and Anneila
Sargent (astronomer/educator)
6:36 - 8:00 Facilitated Public Comment
Those in attendence - in addition to the 2 people above:
Facilitators - David Tarnas and David Ka'apu
EIS process specialists - Jim Hayes and Scot Polzin
They made lots of todo about not building on any pu'u, that only private
money is being used and that there will be no defense or military
involvement. They stressed, because of only private source moneys being used - that the EIS will be prepared per State of Hawai'i Chapter 343
requirements alone.
I think they want to distance themselves from any kind of federal involvement - especially the "federal" NASA generated EIS for the Outriggers. However - I don't think they can get out of having to comply with all of NEPA's (National Environmental Policy Act's) requirements.
There were about 5 people who testified - roughly - 3 for, 1 neutral and 1
against (he was complaining about a possible military involvement).
I did not speak. However, I'm thinking of raising a number of issues on
Wednesday night in Waimea - not anything to do with litigation issues - or potential litigation issues. One issue is "resolution," with interferometry and long baselines.
TMT is a "single" lens instrument - so isn't designed for interferometry.
I want to question - relative to interferometry - TMT's resolution vs. the 2 Kecks, the 2 Kecks with Outriggers (that we stopped), a Keck with Keck south (in South America), all the present optical and IR telescopes on Mauna Kea tied together, etc.
I don't think we ought to mention the 8 criteria - as we might be able to
catch them sleeping - and we know that they will probably NOT be able to
comply with a couple of them.
I think we ought to mention the new road(s), new infrastructure, affect on
electric power capacity on Hawai'i island and possible need for expansion
of capacity due to these guy's use of present excess power, if any, having to "spoil" a new area, opening new area that could open the floodgates for new telescopes, priority for this telescope (and possible substitution of
diameter for diameter of outmoded telescopes or soon to be outmoded),
decommissioning plan with its costs held in escrow (interest to TMT), etc.
Another possible biggy is that they are running out of time. If it takes a
couple of years to do this EIS AND the Comprehensive Master Plan, with
possible 7 plus years of litigation on both of them, plus 7 years to build
the TMT - and maybe a couple of years to tear it down will it will add up to around 19 years. 2008 plus 19 years puts them at 2027 - with only 6 years left on the lease.
This kind of timeline would really throw off their present
cost/benefit ratio.
Of course - another biggy is rent. With a Canadian outfit as one of the
partners - this adds another "international" involvement to be thrown on the backs of the real owners - subjects of the Kingdom. Why do we need to
subsidize foreign organizations, even though they may be educationally
based? "Foreignors" just aren't named beneficiaries of the 5(f) lands.
And, if they can truck water up the mountain - they can truck their sewage
and waste water back down.
Today's West Hawaii Today covered last night's event. See below.
Take care.
ku
____________
>From West Hawaii Today, Tuesday, October 7, 2008
>
>30-meter telescope; Cultural, Environmental, Impacts to be minimized - by
>Erin Miller
>
>If the people behind the Thirty Meter Telecope eventually choose to build on
>Mauna Kea, they hope to work with cultural practitioners to have the
>smallest impact possible on the moountain, the manager of the environmental
>impact statement process says.
>
>Sandra Dawson said during the construction process, and once the telescope,
>referred to as TMT, was up and running, staff would work to be respectful in
>their use of Mauna Kea.
>
>"How? I'm not sure," she said. "What can TMT do to respect the mountain,
>to be a cultural benefit? People have all kinds of ideas."
>
>TMT would follow any protocols outlined in a yet-to-be completed
>Comprehensive Management Plan for the use of Mauna Kea, a task undertaken at
>the direction of the University of Hawaii, which has a 50-year lease on the
>land used by a number of international telescopes already in place. In
>addition to complying with the plan, TMT officials want to create
>educational opportunities for Big Island students, Dawson said.
>Possibilities range from astronomy textbooks to building a community
>college, all depending on input from Hawaii Island residents, she added.
>
>The price of building such a telescope has been reported as being as high as
>$1.3 billion. Dwson said price estimates in 2006 showed costs of $754
>million for a site on Mauna Kea or the other site being consaidered, which
>is in Chile.
>
>Community members were to get their first opportunity to start providing
>input on Monday evening in Kapaau, when Dawson, at least two astronomers and
>representatives of TMT hosted the first in a series of seven public
>meetings. The October meetings begin the scoping process for the EIS,
>comments collected will be used to identify the community's concerns. about
>the project.
>
>Already available for public view is the EIS for the other site TMT
>officials are considering in Chile. Dawson also managed that project, and
>said she is neutal in composing the statements. Differences between Mauna
>Kea and Cerro Armazones in Chile's Atacama Desert include elevation (Mauna
>Kea's summit is higher), temperature (Mauna Kea is cooler) and vegetation
>(nothing grows on Cerro Armazones, Dawson said). Another difference is in
>the cultural view of the two mountains.
>
>At Cerro Armazones, there are "no people, no history," Dawson said.
>
>Instead, the need for infrastructure -- roads, electricity and the ability
>to bring water and remove waste water -- are the key concerns with that
>parcel of land, which is also owned by a university. Cerro Armazones is
>more difficult to reach than Mauna Kea, nearly 12 hours by plane from Los
>Angeles to Santiago, Chile, followed by a two-hour flight to a smaller
>airport, completed with a two-hour drive to the mountain, Dawson said.
>
>Proposed by the University of California, California Institute of Technology
>and the Association of Canadian Universities for Research in Astronomy, the
>telescope would have a resolution many times greater than that of the Hubble
>Space Telescope. That possibility is exciting for Annelila Sargent, an
>astronomy professor at CalTech.
>
>"I see this as a huge educational too." Sargent said. "We can investigate
>all sorts of areas of interest to us. We can see echoes of how our origins
>began."
>
>TMT would be able to gather nine times more light than that currently
>recorded by the Keck telescope, and be able to take images three times
>sharper than Keck. University of California at Irvine Assistant Professor
>Elizabeth Barton added.
>
>Public meeting are scheduled for the following locations: Kahilu Town Hall,
>Waimea 5-8 p.m. Wednesday; Kealakehe Elementary School cafeteria, Kona, 5-8
>p.m. Thursday; Ka'u High and Pahala Elementary School cafeteria, 6-9 p.m.
>Monday; Keaukaha Elementary School Cafeteria, HIlo, 6-9 p.m. Oct. 14; and
>Pahoa High School, Puna, 5-8 p.m. Oct. 15.
You need to be a member of maoliworld to add comments!
I am stupefied by the stupidity of this project, and the news articles reporting on it are a really bad and incorrect joke.
So thanks for shedding some light and points- the timing issue you bring up is particularly important. I guess they already assume the lease will be renewed? Its interesting that quite a few leases will be coming up around the same time: Makua, Bellows, Mauna Kea....where else do leases expire around 2027-2037?
Replies
I am stupefied by the stupidity of this project, and the news articles reporting on it are a really bad and incorrect joke.
So thanks for shedding some light and points- the timing issue you bring up is particularly important. I guess they already assume the lease will be renewed? Its interesting that quite a few leases will be coming up around the same time: Makua, Bellows, Mauna Kea....where else do leases expire around 2027-2037?