Debate over Haleakala telescope re-engaged

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WAILUKU - The science-versus-sacrilege debate over the proposed solar telescope near Haleakala's summit received a jump-start Wednesday night back into Maui's public discourse for the first time in nearly three years.

The $161 million Advanced Technology Solar Telescope, which has a controversial 143-foot-tall design, is under consideration by the federal agency, the National Science Foundation. It is nearly a decade in the making.

About 50 people attended what should be one of the last public discussions about the hot-button project located within the 18-acre Science City complex of observatories and telescopes near the dormant volcano's more than 10,000-foot summit. They met to present comments on one of the last legally required documents for the project, a supplemental draft environmental impact statement.

Another hearing will be held at 7 p.m. today at the Mayor Hannibal Tavares Community Center in Pukalani.

Wednesday night's audience in the Cameron Center was composed mostly of government bureaucrats, private consultants, Native Hawaiian activists and astronomy buffs. The dozen or so people who spoke were almost evenly split in their testimony for and against the project, which is expected to be decided upon - one way or the other - by the National Science Foundation board and its director by the end of this year.

However, amateur astronomer Stan Truitt said he believes strongly in the telescope's mission, and that eventually it will be removed after it's become outdated.

"I would like you all to consider that this is a good thing for Maui and a good thing for mankind," Truitt said.

Native Hawaiian advocate Foster Ampong said he's against the construction of the telescope.

"The community at large does not support this project," Ampong said.

The arguments against another telescope on "The House of the Sun" were impassioned: Haleakala is a critical spiritual site, perhaps the most important on Maui, and the burial place of alii or royalty. There's no reason good enough to build on a sacred site - the very act of which is desecration, opponents said.

Besides, they said, the project is on ceded land controlled by the state. Native Hawaiian activists oppose use of the former monarchy lands ceded by the United States when it took control over the islands.

"I see this as a church, as a church to science. And I see this as putting a church on top of someone else's religious ground," said James Brent, who lives near the park entrance. "I see people trying to justify this with science."

The arguments in support were also multifold: much-needed investment here, 35 jobs and $18 million into the economy each year.

Advocates also maintained that the solar telescope would advance humankind's minimal knowledge about the sun and potentially help prevent the sun's ability to end life or destroy communications and electrical technology.

Back in October 2006, former Haleakala National Park Superintendent Marilyn Parris said the park opposed the solar telescope and called the original draft environmental impact statement on the project inadequate. The community groups Friends of Haleakala National Park and Kilakila O Haleakala also took positions against the project, calling for it to be built in one of the two other sites in North America.

On Wednesday evening, Parris' successor, park Superintendent M. Sarah Creachbaum, said the National Park Service has been working with the National Science Foundation to address potential negative impacts to the park visitors' experience as well as the potential effect of heavy equipment on the sensitive Haleakala summit and mountainside and on endangered plants and animals.

The park service will soon issue its current stance on the project. Creachbaum didn't say what that would be. But it was the park service's complaints that helped lead to the creation of the supplemental draft environmental impact statement that was under discussion Wednesday.

The deadline for public comments on the document is June 22. And then in July, the National Science Foundation expects to complete its final environmental study, said the foundation's assistant general counsel, Caroline Blanco.

The National Science Foundation's program manager, Craig Foltz, said this is an unusually large and expensive project for the agency. But it will benefit the entire science community, he said.

"It would be the world's flagship facility for ground-based solar observation," Foltz said.

President Obama's administration has allocated the $146 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for the Haleakala solar telescope. But Foltz added that just because the money's been allocated doesn't mean it will be spent on the project.

If the solar telescope is not approved, the National Science Foundation could use it for something else, he told the audience Wednesday. But he added that the agency has spent $23 million so far on the project's planning and design since 2000.

* Chris Hamilton can be reached at chamilton@mauinews.com.