Conservationists, cultural practitioners appeal BLNR decision on Mauna Kea plan
Oct 01, 2009 - 03:25 PM | By The Hawaii Independent Staff | The Hawaii Independent
In 1978, Hawaii designated Mauna Kea’s summit region a conservation district, which requires special approval before any construction may proceed.
HONOLULU—The State’s Board of Land and Natural Resources (BLNR) and the University of Hawaii are being challenged in court by Native Hawaiian practitioners, conservationists, and activists for rushing through a process that would pave the way for the building of the massive new Thirty Meter Telescope atop Mauna Kea despite public opposition.
Mauna Kea Anaina Hou, Royal Order of Kamehameha I, Sierra Club’s Hawaii Chapter, KAHEA, and Clarence Kukauakahi Ching filed an appeal in the Third Circuit Court today against BLNR’s approval of a comprehensive management plan (CMP) of Mauna Kea’s conservation district put forward by UH.
“UH and the Land Board are pushing this new management plan because they want to guarantee building another massive telescope on this sacred site,” said Ching, a Native Hawaiian cultural practitioner and retired attorney. “But they can’t do anything until they first deal with the adverse impacts of all the telescopes they have built on our summit over the last 30 years. These telescopes have leveled cinder cones, dumped human waste and toxic chemicals over our aquifer, and impaired cultural practices on the summit. The courts agree, it is time for this to stop.”
The plan was put forward by UH after Judge Glenn S. Hara ruled in 2007 that an approved CMP was required for Mauna Kea. Today’s appeal comes after BLNR held a public hearing in Hilo in April during which various organizations requested for a contested case hearing on the proposed CMP. Immediately following the meeting, BLNR approved the CMP despite those requests.
Last month, on August 28, BLNR voted to deny the request for a contested case hearing on the proposed CMP on recommendation by the State, who said that the petitioners could not show a property interest on the CMP and that there was no guarantee that the plan would lead to further development on Mauna Kea.
Conservationists say that the BLNR’s decision to approve the CMP before ruling on the petition for a contested case hearing is an affront to meaningful citizen participation in agency decisions and neglects citizens’ substantial rights.
“Citizen participation in agency decisions is an essential part of our democratic tradition,” said Nelson Ho of the Sierra Club. “The concept of meaningful public participation ensures decision-makers will have adequate information and minimizes the possibility of public corruption and back-room dealing.”
Mauna Kea is a religious temple, human burial ground, and a site for the study of traditional Hawaiian techniques in navigation and astronomy. It protects the primary aquifer for Hawaii Island and is home to rare and threatened native species. In 1978, Hawaii designated the summit region a conservation district, which requires special approval before any construction may proceed.
BLNR leases much of Mauna Kea’s summit to UH’s Institute for Astronomy for a dollar a year.
The University of Hawaii is currently seeking permission to build the Thirty Meter Telescope in correspondence with state environmental laws.
The project proposes to build an observatory on the northern plateau of Maunakea consisting of the telescope, adaptive optics system, dome, support building, and parking area within a 5-acre site. The primary component of the telescope is a 98-foot mirror with 492 individual mirror segments that would function as a single mirror. The dome housing the telescope measures at a height of 180 feet with an aluminum-like exterior coating.
To read the appeal, click here.
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