The University of Hawaii called its last witness Tuesday, but the Thirty Meter Telescope’s contested case still has a long way to go.
The quasi-judicial hearing regarding the $1.4 billion project’s land use permit has completed 16 days of hearings since starting in October and now is scheduled to run through January.
UH was the first party to call witnesses for cross-examination, with its 12th and last being Tom Nance, who owns a water resource engineering firm. More than 80 witnesses are scheduled to testify, though not all are being called.
Nance said the next-generation telescope wouldn’t have a significant impact on groundwater and that it would be impossible for it to pollute Lake Waiau on the other side of Mauna Kea. The observatory’s waste would be stored and later trucked off the mountain, leaving runoff from rain and melting snow the only potential contaminant.
But even that would take at least centuries to work its way to the nearest well at Waikii Ranch, assuming it flowed in that direction, and would be naturally filtered, he concluded.
“The travel times are very, very long,” said Nance, who was hired by UH’s law firm to review the project.
In response to questions from project opponents, he acknowledged that it’s not known where water sources are under the mountain, though he believed them to be thousands of feet below the summit.
Some opponents, who say they are protecting a sacred mountain, have claimed the telescope would pollute groundwater. Rain, snow and mist are among elements on the mountain attributed to deities.
Waiau also is considered sacred, making water on the mountain a sensitive topic.
“Would you agree with me that man is the only living element that will contaminate the most necessary thing that he needs to survive, which is water?” asked William Freitas, who held a ti leaf in his hand pointed toward Nance.
“Not necessarily,” Nance responded.
While TMT would store its waste, existing observatories use cesspools that leach into the ground. Nance noted Pu‘u Waiau is impermeable so the lake only collects water that falls within the cinder cone.
Other questions pertained to his knowledge of hydrology of the area, Hawaiian cultural practices and Hawaiian sovereignty.
About two dozen parties are participating in the contested case, the second for TMT, though some don’t attend consistently. Each are given a chance to cross-examine witnesses.
A previous hearing in 2011 ended with the project receiving a favorable recommendation, but the state Supreme Court ruled a year ago that the state Board of Land and Natural Resources violated opponents’ due process rights by approving a permit before that process started.
That prompted the Land Board to start a new hearing, which has struggled to maintain momentum because of the addition of numerous other parties who are largely representing themselves.
In the meantime, TMT International Observatory selected the Canary Islands as an alternate site for the project. A representative said last month that it intends to resume construction in April 2018.
TMT will begin calling its witnesses when hearings resume Friday at the Grand Naniloa Hotel in Hilo.
The telescope organization’s partners are Caltech, University of California, Association of Canadian Universities for Research in Astronomy and national institutes in Japan, China and India.
Email Tom Callis at tcallis@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
