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HONOLULU (AP) -- A U.S. federal judge's order to prepare a new environmental assessment for the installation of up to six new telescopes atop Mauna Kea on the Big Island is expected to delay the $50 million NASA expansion project for up to a year.
But the ruling is not expected to affect the agency's plans to move forward with the project, said Lisa Bail, an attorney for the University of Hawaii, whose Institute for Astronomy would manage the new telescopes.
"This doesn't stop the project,'' she said Thursday. ``It doesn't mean the project won't go further.'' The project has been delayed until the revised assessment is completed, which is expected to take six months to a year, Bail said.
The state Office of Hawaiian Affairs brought the lawsuit against NASA and the Institute for Astronomy, arguing the project would damage the mountain's sacred sites and fragile ecosystem.
Mauna Kea, at 13,769 feet (4,130 meters) the highest mountain in the Pacific, is considered sacred to Native Hawaiians as the home of deities and as an ancient and modern burial ground. It is also home to the endangered wekiu bug and other insects.
The Mauna Kea summit already has 13 telescopes operated by 11 countries. The newest telescope, maintained by Taiwan and the Smithsonian Institution, was erected in 2002.
The additional telescopes are being financed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and are expected to improve the images taken by W.M. Keck Observatory atop Mauna Kea.
U.S. District Judge Susan Oki Mollway ruled Tuesday that NASA failed to adequately analyze the cumulative development impact of the four to six-foot (two-meter) ``outrigger'' telescopes to be added around the Keck Observatory.
In her ruling, she wrote, the assessment ``considers only those activities whose construction of the outrigger telescopes project.''
NASA spokesman Don Savage said the agency ``just got the court findings and we're still evaluating them.'' He declined comment on the ruling itself, saying only that officials still have determine and evaluate their options.
Bail said the one area where the university and the Hawaiian agency agree ``is that the Mauna Kea summit is a unique and special place on this planet.''
"The university strongly believes that there's a place on the Mauna Kea site for both astronomers and native Hawaiians,'' she said.
The proposed telescopes are 30-foot-high (10-meter-high) domes that would be attached to the existing Keck Observatory, which has two existing 101-foot-high (30-meter) telescopes.
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