HILO, Hawai'i — A Big Island judge yesterday reversed state approval of a project to grow genetically engineered algae in outdoor tanks at the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawai'i in Kona, ruling an environmental assessment must be done before the project can proceed.

The ruling by Judge Elizabeth Strance is a setback for Mera Pharmaceutical, which in June won the approval of the state Board of Agriculture to import seven strains of a genetically engineered alga, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, to grow at the energy lab.

The algae will be engineered to produce antibodies that can be processed for use in medicine.

Isaac Moriwake, lawyer with Earthjustice, said the Board of Agriculture "might save itself a lot of time" by requiring an even more extensive environmental impact statement for the project before the board votes again on whether to allow Mera to proceed.

Moriwake said the project needs more study because it is the "very first of its kind, anywhere."

"It's novel technology, a novel process where they're going to be rapidly mass producing genetically modified drug-laden algae in an outdoor environment," he said.

"The community members wanted to know exactly what the potential impacts would be should the organism be established in that environment, and what the potential impacts would be if humans were to come into contact with that algae and the drug that it produces."

Opponents of the project worry escaped algae could become established in moist soil or in the water supply, and could cross with native species of algae.

Moriwake sued the Board of Agriculture in August on behalf of the Sierra Club Hawai'i Chapter, GMO-Free Hawai'i, Kohanaiki 'Ohana, and 'Ohana Pale Ke Ao, alleging the Hawai'i Environmental Policy Act at a minimum requires that an environmental assessment be done before the project can proceed.

Janelle Saneishi, spokeswoman for the Department of Agriculture, said the board and the department will have to meet with the state Attorney General's office to decide how to proceed after Strance's ruling.

Representatives of Mera were unavailable for comment yesterday afternoon. However, the company has said the algae grow only in fresh water and will die if exposed to saltwater. Mera plans to grow the algae in outdoor ponds called photobioreactors, which would be surrounded by trenches of saltwater and bleach.

Company representatives have said the algae could be quickly killed with bleach if an incoming hurricane threatened to release them.

Mera would be growing the algae for Rincon Pharmaceuticals, and Rincon vice president Scott Franklin has said the modified algae could not contaminate the food chain or harm humans. The modified algae are harmless if eaten, and the proteins they produce must be purified and injected to be effective, he has said.

Reach Kevin Dayton at kdayton@honoluluadvertiser.com.