The conditions recommended for the Thirty Meter Telescope this week by a former Hilo judge are virtually identical to those in the controversial project’s original 2011 permit for work atop Mauna Kea.
Former Circuit Judge Riki May Amano, the contested-case hearing officer who recently presided over more than four months of testimony, lists in her decision the same 40 conditions found in the TMT’s initial conservation district use permit issued in 2011, with minor deviations in the wording and numbering.
Proponents and opponents of the $1.4 billion telescope project each interpreted that differently, after having digested Amano’s 305-page recommendation for the new permit. Her report was released late Wednesday.
“It shows the project did meet the criteria as required by state law” and that the case for the TMT was strong, telescope spokesman Scott Ishikawa said Friday. “We felt Judge Amano worked tirelessly, (that) everyone had a chance to be part of the process,” which ran fairly, he added.
On the other hand, Kealoha Pisciotta, one of the leaders of those fighting against the telescope, called the similarity of the outlined conditions “disappointing and tragic.” She said it raised questions whether Amano gave due diligence to the issue.
“Every one of the petitioners gave their all and did their absolute best in a system that was not friendly to us and treated us as criminals,” Pisciotta said Friday.
The state Land Board will listen to oral arguments Sept. 20 in Hilo on whether to issue the permit for TMT work as Amano recommended.
Work on the telescope was halted in 2015 after the Hawaii Supreme Court invalidated a permit it said was issued in error by the Land Board because it did not hold a contested-case hearing before giving approval. The high court sent the case back to the board, and the contested-case hearing went before Amano in October.
Parties to the contested case will be allowed to file exceptions to Amano’s recommendation no later than Aug. 21 and responses to those exceptions no later than Sept. 11, according to a notice issued Friday by the Department of Land and Natural Resources.
TMT officials have insisted they would need “reasonably assured access” to a site by this fall to begin construction by April. As the legal proceedings stretched on, the TMT International Observatory board began eyeing a mountain in the Canary Islands as an alternative site.
The Sept. 20 hearing will be held at the Grand Naniloa Hotel Crown Room. Each party to the case will have 15 minutes to present its arguments to the board, and then the board will be able to ask questions. The state Land Board can then take however long it needs to decide on whether to issue the permit, DLNR officials said.
Whichever way the board rules, it is likely the case will be appealed to the state Supreme Court under Act 48, a fast-track provision approved by the 2016 Legislature.
Also looming is whether the project will face an entirely separate and potentially time-consuming contested case on the project’s sublease. That issue was transferred to the state Supreme Court earlier this summer.
TMT 2011 Conditions by Honolulu Star-Advertiser on Scribd
Amano 2017 Recommendations by Honolulu Star-Advertiser on Scribd
Honolulu Star-Advertiser reporter Timothy Hurley contributed to this report.
