Mauna Kea lawsuit

There are currently 13 observatories on the summit of Mauna Kea, with one more planned. As part of their mismanagement of the mountain, the state and the university have failed to prudently negotiate sublease terms for observatories and failed to manage observatory development and decommissioning. A 1998 state audit found that UH did not allocate sufficient resources to protect Mauna Kea’s natural resources because it focused primarily on astronomy development. - Photo: sin_ok, adobestock.com

By Sterling Wong

The Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA) filed a lawsuit Nov. 7 in First Circuit Court against the State of Hawai‘i and the University of Hawai‘i (UH) for their longstanding and well-documented mismanagement of Mauna Kea.

OHA’s complaint requests the court to order the state to fulfill its trust obligations relating to Mauna Kea and to terminate UH’s general lease for the mountain for breach of the lease’s terms.

“The state and UH have failed to properly mälama Mauna Kea and have demonstrated their inability to ensure that the environmental and cultural significance of the mountain is recognized and protected,” said OHA Trustee Dan Ahuna, the chair of OHA’s Ad Hoc Committee on Mauna Kea. “This is not about any one telescope. This lawsuit is about addressing the state’s failure to manage the entire mountain for nearly half a century.”

“It’s time to abandon any hope that UH is capable or even willing to provide the level of aloha and attention to Mauna Kea that it deserves,” Ahuna continued. “We need to come together as a community to completely re-think how we care for the mauna, and that starts with cancelling the university’s master lease.”

In 1974, then-Gov. George Ariyoshi warned against unrestricted use of the mauna. “I am concerned that social pressures for more intensive use of Mauna Kea for scientific, recreational and other purposes pose a threat to the priceless qualities of that mountain,” he said. “There are many legitimate and desirable uses which should be encouraged, and there may be some potential uses which must be either prohibited or closely controlled, if we are to preserve the historical sites and natural environment in the best possible manner.”

Since then, four state audits have documented and criticized the state and UH’s mismanagement of Mauna Kea. The initial audit from 1998 concluded that “little was done” to protect the natural resources on Mauna Kea since the first telescope was constructed in 1968. The audit further noted that UH did not allocate sufficient resources to protect Mauna Kea’s natural resources because it focused primarily on astronomy development.

“The University of Hawai‘i’s management of the Mauna Kea Science Reserve is inadequate to ensure the protection of natural resources. The university focused primarily on the development of Mauna Kea and tied the benefits gained to its research program. The university’s control over public access was weak and its efforts to protect