The Thirty Meter Telescope, in limbo for more than a year, moved a huge step closer to approval with the release Friday of a report in support of the University of Hawaii’s request to build the giant observatory.
The state Board of Land and Natural Resources will hear one final round of arguments on the telescope at a meeting Jan. 30 in Hilo, but a decision is not likely at that time.
A year and two months after a contested case hearing with UH and opponents of telescope development on Mauna Kea, hearing officer Paul Aoki released his findings recommending the approval of the $1.3 billion telescope, which would be one of the world’s most powerful optical/infrared telescopes.
“It’s a positive report, so we’re very happy to have it,” said Sandra Dawson, the TMT’s on-site manager. She said the telescope corporation, an association of research universities and governments in California, Canada, Japan, India and China, would comply with all the conditions in Aoki’s report.
Deborah Ward, one of the petitioners against the telescope, said she would have to read the document carefully before making a statement.
The next step is that both sides will be able to file written disagreements to the hearing officer’s recommendation, and to respond to each other’s briefs.
Then, on Jan. 30, beginning at 11 a.m. in the Hawaii County Council chambers, the BLNR will hear oral arguments by both sides for no more than 30 minutes per side. The general public will not be allowed to testify.
Following that, the board will take the arguments under advisement.
Whichever side loses has the option of appealing.
Although Aoki’s report is not the final word, the contested case hearing was by far the biggest hurdle to date for the TMT, which had to survive multiple rounds of objections over the approval of the Mauna Kea Comprehensive Management Plan, the approval of the TMT’s environmental impact statement and UH’s own approval. Aoki found that the TMT project satisfied all eight criteria necessary for the granting of a conservation district use permit. The report dismisses the arguments raised by the petitioners, who in addition to Ward are KAHEA, Paul Neves, Clarence Kukauakahi Ching, Mauna Kea Anaina Hou and the family of E. Kalani Flores and B. Pua Case.
KAHEA spokeswoman Bianca Isaki declined to comment pending a conference with the petitioners.
