“U.S. Environmental Study Launched for Thirty Meter Telescope”

Spectrum News by Associated Press

“The National Science Foundation said Tuesday it plans to conduct a study to evaluate the environmental effects of building one of the world’s largest optical telescopes on sites selected in Hawaii and Spain’s Canary Islands.

The agency published a notice in the Federal Register of its intentions to prepare an environmental impact statement for the $2.65 billion Thirty Meter Telescope.

The telescope’s supporters have pursued plans to build it on their preferred site on the summit of Mauna Kea, Hawaii’s tallest mountain and one of the world’s best locations for viewing the night sky, for over a decade. But there is strong opposition from Native Hawaiians who consider the mountain’s summit sacred.

The National Science Foundation plans to host four meetings on the Big Island of Hawaii in August. It said it won’t decide on whether to fund the telescope until after it considers public input, the environmental review, the project’s technical readiness and other factors.

Protesters blocked construction crews in 2015 and 2019, saying building a new telescope there would further defile a site that they say has already been harmed by a dozen other observatories.

The TMT International Observatory, the international consortium of scientists behind the project, has selected the Spanish island of La Palma off Africa’s western coast as an alternate if it cannot build in Hawaii.

The group completed an environmental study in 2010 that was mandated by Hawaii law for construction on Mauna Kea.

The National Science Foundation must conduct a new study under U.S. law to invest in the project because it is part of the federal government.

A report from the U.S. astronomy community last year said TMT planned to obtain 30% of the project’s estimated construction costs, or $800 million, from the U.S. government.

TMT is a partnership between the California Institute of Technology, the University of California and government-backed research institutions in Canada, China, India and Japan…” read more here.