Telescopes dot the summit of Mauna Kea. Debate is continuing on the future of the mountain. - Photo: Blaine Fergerstrom

By T. Ilihia Gionson / Ka Wai Ola Loa

Public access, decommissioning plans light on specifics

The final two sub-plans that will complete the Mauna Kea Comprehensive Management Plan were presented to the public in Hilo on December 1. The two plans address the touchy issues of public access and observatory decommissioning.

The public access sub-plan tries to balance the public's right to access the summit for recreation and protecting the summit's resources from the impact of human traffic. Instead of specific guidelines, the plan leaves many of the details to the Office of Mauna Kea Management's administrative rule-making process that will begin once the CMP is approved by the Board of Land and Natural Resources. To enforce these rules, a philosophy of education first will be in place, to encourage voluntary compliance with guidelines. This education will be delivered via improved signage, enhanced training of rangers, and increased personnel on the summit. However, one of the more controversial components originally proposed for the plan – a mandatory orientation for all visitors – did not find its way into the final sub-plan.

The decommissioning sub-plan lays out the process that each observatory must follow at the end of their time on the mountain. The sub-plan requires each observatory to develop a Decommissioning Funding Plan, a document with an estimate of the cost of decommissioning and assurance that funds will be available to carry out the decommissioning at the end of the observatory's life. Each observatory will also be required to develop a Site Decommissioning Plan that will propose the action to be taken at the end of the observatory's life – removal, retrofit, or transfer to another party – and contain a plan for eventual demolition, removal, and site restoration.

The two latest plans will be presented to the state Board of Land and Natural Resources – along with two previously completed sub-plans addressing cultural and natural resource management – in early 2010. While the comprehensive management plan does not itself authorize any further development on Mauna Kea, the plan does need to be accepted and in place before any new permits can be granted for land use on Mauna Kea.

Review the two newest sub-plans at malamamaunakea.org.

Lawsuit challenges contested case denial

And as the development of the CMP continues, a lawsuit challenging the Board of Land and Natural Resources' April acceptance of the incomplete plan was heard in a Hilo court on December 9. The University of Hawai'i opposed a coalition of Native Hawaiians and environmentalists – Mauna Kea Anaina Hou, Royal Order of Kamehameha I, Sierra Club Hawai'i Chapter, KAHEA, and Clarence Kūkauakahi Ching – in their attempt to challenge the Board of Land and Natural Resources' acceptance of the Mauna Kea Comprehensive Management Plan. Judge Glenn Hara, the judge who decided the Mauna Kea case that necessitated the creation of a comprehensive management plan, heard the case on Dec. 9 but did not indicate when he would make a ruling.