Following weeks of escalating public opposition, the Maui County Council now stands in unanimous opposition to the military\u2019s plan to build up to seven telescopes in a state conservation district atop Haleakal\u0101.<\/p>\n
The council passed a resolution Friday urging the U.S. Air Force to reject a draft environmental impact statement for the $5.9 million project and called on the National Park Service, the Federal Aviation Administration and the Department of Land and Natural Resources not to approve any permits.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs elected officials, we\u2019re entrusted to represent the people\u2019s voice,\u201d said council member Keani Rawlins-Fernandez, who introduced the resolution.<\/p>\n
Community members have voiced concerns, she said, about the project\u2019s potential to degrade cultural resources, negatively affect the environment and expand military presence on Maui. \u201cDecisions impacting our lands, waters and sacred sites should not move forward when the communities living here have made their opposition clear,\u201d Rawlins-Fernandez told her colleagues at the meeting.<\/p>\n
The resolution is now expected to be sent to the consultant contracted to complete the draft EIS and collect community feedback, as well as to a long list of federal and state officials. <\/p>\n
There are already six academic and four space surveillance telescopes near the summit of Haleakal\u0101, the Valley Isle\u2019s highest peak at just over 10,000 feet. Federal officials have said that the new telescopes would be part of a broader space surveillance facility that is needed to enhance the United States\u2019 ability to track and identify potential threats among satellites and other objects orbiting Earth.<\/p>\n
Since the EIS was released in January, community members have come out in droves to voice their opposition to the contents of the environmental review and the overall project. More than 100 testified at public hearings held by Air Force officials in K\u012bhei and Pukalani<\/a> last month and condemned the draft report<\/a> at the council meeting Friday, saying it does not lay out a sufficient plan to mitigate the threats to the environment and cultural resources. Many criticized federal officials for giving the community just 45 days to review and comment on the 516-page document.<\/p>\n In response to residents\u2019 feedback, Air Force officials announced on Thursday that the public comment period would be extended an additional 30 days, through April 15<\/a>. <\/p>\n \u201cIt is imperative for us to remain engaged, receptive, and transparent with community members,\u201d U.S. Space Force Lt. Col. Douglas Thornton, 15th Space Surveillance Squadron commander, said in a statement. \u201cAs we move through this process, we will continue to have respectful engagements and value the feedback we receive.\u201d<\/p>\n At the end of the comment period, the feedback will be incorporated into the final EIS, which is scheduled to be published in the fall. <\/p>\n The mountaintop is home to numerous endangered or threatened species such as the Hawaiian hoary bat, the band-rumped storm petrel, the Hawaiian goose or nene and a species of silversword that does not grow anywhere else in the world.<\/p>\n The project is expected to have minimal impact on the environmental, according to the draft EIS, but the reporter acknowledges the adverse effects on cultural resources would likely be profound because many Native Hawaiians and others consider Haleakal\u0101\u2019s summit to be a sacred and deeply spiritual place. The latter was the driving force behind major community opposition to the proposed Thirty Meter Telescope<\/a> atop Mauna Kea on Hawai\u02bbi island, a project that remains in limbo more than a decade later.<\/p>\n Construction of the Air Force Maui Optical and Supercomputing Site Small Telescope Advanced Research Facility, or AMOS STAR, is planned to begin later this year or 2027. The domed telescopes \u2014 as well as infrastructure improvements including a new paved access road, parking facilities and surface water runoff management measures \u2014 would be built on less than 1 acre of land near the existing space surveillance complex on Haleakal\u0101.<\/p>\n Mounting Opposition<\/p>\n Several military and academic telescopes have been built near the top of the volcano since the 1950s, often despite objections from locals. In 2015 and 2017, dozens of protesters<\/a>were arrested<\/a> after laying in the road to block vehicles transporting parts to build the controversial $344 million Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope<\/a>.<\/p>\n When federal officials first unveiled plans to build AMOS STAR in 2024, hundreds of people testified at public meetings in opposition to building the telescopes. That June, the council unanimously passed another resolution calling on the Air Force to \u201crespect the unified and collective voice of community members who testified\u201d<\/a> and to cease all actions related to the development of the space surveillance facility.<\/p>\n Air Force officials have maintained that the new telescopes are necessary for security and intelligence purposes.<\/p>\n During the council meeting on Friday, testifiers echoed many of the same concerns voiced two years earlier. Tiare Lawrence, a Native Hawaiian community activist who has long been vocal about her opposition to building telescopes on Haleakal\u0101, said expanding the military\u2019s presence near the summit could make Maui a military target, and it would threaten one of the island\u2019s most sacred places.<\/p>\n \u201cFor generations, our k\u016bpuna have revered this summit as a place where the heavens and earth meet. It is also one of the most fragile and unique ecosystems in Hawai\u2019i, home to species found nowhere else on Earth,\u201d she said. \u201cDespite this sacred and ecological significance, Haleakal\u0101 has already borne the burden of expensive developments.\u201d<\/p>\n Local residents already have their doubts over the military\u2019s claims that the project won\u2019t harm the environment. Lawrence highlighted the spill of 1,300 gallons of firefighting foam containing cancer-causing chemicals at the Navy\u2019s Red Hill fuel complex in November 2022 and to the Army\u2019s decades-long history of pollution in M\u0101kua Valley on O\u02bbahu. She noted that federal officials have not yet finished cleaning up a 720-gallon diesel fuel spill<\/a> caused by a lightning strike at the existing space surveillance complex near the summit of Haleakal\u0101 in January 2023.<\/p>\n Kula resident Dick Mayer, in his testimony, emphasized that the draft EIS only discusses the roughly 1-acre area where the new facility would be built. The project would add to a community of telescopes and other military and research facilities that has been growing for decades, he said. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s the federal government which controls practically all the activities on the top of the mountain,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat they need to do is have an environmental document that looks at the cumulative impacts of all of the federal activities on top of the mountain.\u201d<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n Civil Beat\u2019s coverage of climate change and the environment is supported by The Healy Foundation, the Marisla Fund of the Hawai\u2018i Community Foundation and the Frost Family Foundation.<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n