Posted on: Tuesday, November 19, 2002

Ruling to determine observatory expansion plans

By Vicki Viotti
Advertiser Staff Writer

A federal judge is expected to rule by Friday on a complaint by the Office of Hawaiian Affairs that NASA issued an environmental assessment on its controversial W.M. Keck Observatory expansion too late in the planning process, breaking its own regulations.

U. S. District Judge Susan Mollway, however, indicated she will reject OHA's request for a decision to force NASA to compile a more comprehensive environmental impact statement on the expansion.

The opening argument presented yesterday before Mollway is the latest salvo in the ongoing fight by Hawaiian and environmental groups to block the construction of new telescopes at the Mauna Kea observatory.

OHA was seeking a ruling that would in effect force the preparation of a fuller environmental impact statement on the proposal for up to six "outrigger" telescopes at the Keck, expanding the capability at the observatory, which already houses the world's two largest telescopes. The outrigger telescopes are linked using a device called an interferometer.

Such a ruling would derail the contested case hearing, to be held in Hilo in February, on NASA's application before the state Department of Land and Natural Resources for a conservation district use-area permit.

Although Mollway said she would rule by the end of the week, she already filed a paper indicating her inclination to deny OHA's motion. Mollway questioned OHA's contention that NASA already had committed too much money to the expansion project.

This "irretrievable and irreversible commitment of resources" taints the environmental review process by considering impacts when it's too late to turn back, according to the complaint.

Silas DeRoma, NASA's attorney, said because the telescope technology is so cutting-edge, engineers have had to do much more exploratory work at the early stages than in a more conventional project

"It's not as though NASA can just go to the interferometer store," DeRoma said. "There hasn't been an irretrievable commitment of resources."

OHA attorney Lea Hong contended that NASA's own regulations require an assessment to be made before the agency decides to proceed from the "conceptual study phase to detailed planning." Hong cited statements from officials indicating the telescopes have been built as evidence that the project already has proceeded well beyond that point.

Federal environmental laws are "not about waiting until the last possible moment, when the bulldozers are practically poised to go up the mountain," Hong said.