Final Environmental Impact Statement — Advanced Technology Solar Telescope EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Following issuance of the Supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Statement (SDEIS) on May 8, 2009, a 45-day public comment period commenced. That comment period, during which two public hearings were held and numerous comments were submitted, ended on June 22, 2009. This FEIS reflects the changes that were made to the SDEIS in response to comments received, availability of new data, and correction of errors and omissions. Text that has been added after the SDEIS was published is made BOLD to help the reader identify these changes1. Where sections have been revised to provide further clarification and analysis in response to comments on the SDEIS, a notification appears in a box at the outset of each such section. ES-1.0 INTRODUCTION The proposed ATST Project is an applicant action by the National Science Foundation (NSF) for the development of the Advanced Technology Solar Telescope (ATST) within the 18.166-acre University of Hawai‘i (UH) Institute for Astronomy (IfA) Haleakalā High Altitude Observatory (HO) site at the summit of Haleakalā, County of Maui, Hawai‘i. The primary goals of the proposed ATST Project are to understand solar magnetic activities and variability, both because the Sun serves as a key resource for understanding the underpinnings of astrophysics and our understanding of magnetic plasmas, and because activity on the Sun drives space weather. Space weather creates hazards for communications to and from satellites, as well as for astronauts and air travelers. Furthermore, and perhaps most importantly, the variability in solar energy induced by solar activity affects the Earth’s climate. This Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) is a joint Federal and State of Hawai‘i document prepared in compliance with National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), 42 U.S.C. §§ 4321, et seq., and its implementing regulations and guidelines. The NEPA process is a Federal process, separate and distinct from the State of Hawai‘i environmental process to be completed by the University of Hawai‘i (UH) in accordance with applicable State of Hawai‘i statutes and regulations. No final action will be taken by NSF pertinent to funding the on-site construction, installation, and operation of the proposed ATST Project until the decision-making process under NEPA has been completed. This FEIS is also prepared to evaluate the potential environmental impacts associated with the issuance of a Special Use Permit (SUP) by the National Park Service (NPS) pursuant to 36 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) § 5.6 to operate commercial vehicles on the Haleakalā National Park (HALE) road during the construction and operation phases of the proposed ATST Project. In 2006, NSF issued a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) that did not include an analysis of the proposed ATST Project’s impacts to the Park road corridor. It is for this reason and because additional studies were prepared in response to comments on the DEIS that NSF prepared a Supplemental Draft EIS (SDEIS) that became public on May 8, 2009. Following a public comment period that ended on June 22, 2009, this FEIS was prepared. 1 State of Hawai‘i Dept. of Health, Office of Environmental Quality Control requirement. Executive Summary ES-1 Final Environmental Impact Statement — Advanced Technology Solar Telescope ES-1.1 Proposed ATST Project Location The proposed ATST Project would be located on State of Hawai‘i land within the Conservation District on Pu‘u (hill) Kolekole, near the summit of Haleakalā. Pu‘u Kolekole is about 0.3 mile from the highest point, Pu‘u Ula‘ula (Red Hill) Overlook, which is in HALE. At an elevation of 10,023 feet, Haleakalā is one of the prime sites in the world for astronomical and space surveillance activities. The proposed ATST Project would be located within the 18.166-acre HO site at the summit of Haleakalā, County of Maui, Hawai‘i, on approximately 0.86 acres of undeveloped land. The 0.86 acres includes the leveling area, buildings, and paved pads. The preferred site is east of the existing C. E. Kenneth Mees Solar Observatory (MSO) and will be referred to in the FEIS as the Mees site or “Preferred Mees site.” The alternative site is a currently unutilized site within HO known as the Reber Circle site and will be referred to in this FEIS as the Reber Circle site. A No-Action Alternative has also been considered. These alternatives are further defined in Section 2.0-Proposed ATST Project and Alternatives. ES-1.2 Land Ownership In 1961, an Executive Order (EO) by Governor Quinn set aside 18.166 acres of land on the summit of Haleakalā in a place known as Kolekole to be under the control and management of the UH Institute for Astronomy (IfA) for observatory site purposes. The site is known as HO and it is the only such property on Haleakalā specifically designated for such purposes. UH is the recorded fee owner of the parcel identified as Tax Map Key (TMK) (2) 2-2-07-008. The Park road corridor is owned and managed by HALE, a unit of the National Park System. The Park road corridor — specifically, a 50-foot corridor along the Park road measured from the mid-point of the road and extending out 25 feet on each side -— includes the roadway itself and the historic bridge and multiple culverts. The Park road corridor is included because a SUP is required by HALE to operate commercial vehicles within the Park. ES-1.3 Identification of Agencies Proposing the Action NSF serves as the lead Federal agency for review under NEPA. NSF would fund the construction of the proposed ATST Project if it were to be approved. The NSF is an independent Federal agency, which was created by Congress in 1950. The NSF’s Statutory Mission is “to promote the progress of science; to advance the national health, prosperity, and welfare; to secure the national defense.” The Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) is a consortium of universities, and educational and other non-profit institutions that operates world-class astronomical observatories, termed “centers”. Its members are comprised of 33 U.S. institutions and 7 international affiliates. AURA acts on behalf of the science communities that are served by its centers and as trustees and advocates for the centers’ missions. AURA operates the National Solar Observatory (NSO) under a cooperative agreement with NSF. The proposed ATST Project is a proposal of the NSO that is being considered for funding by the NSF. The IfA is one of several partners collaborating on the proposed ATST Project and, therefore, it is cooperating in the Federal NEPA process, as well as leading the parallel State of Hawai‘i EIS process. NSF is the agency primarily responsible for the proposed ATST Project. It assumes responsibility for preparing the FEIS in accordance with NEPA, the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) NEPA- Implementing Regulations (40 CFR Parts 1500-1508), and the NSF’s NEPA-implementing regulations (45 CFR Part 640). While the NSF is the agency primarily responsible for the proposed ATST Project and Executive Summary ES-2 Final Environmental Impact Statement — Advanced Technology Solar Telescope assumes responsibility for the FEIS in accordance with (Hawai‘i Administrative Rules) HAR Title 11 Chapter 200-4(a), the accepting authority for the proposed ATST Project, pursuant to the relevant State of Hawai’i authorities, would be UH. ES-1.4 Project Summary Need for the Project. Since George Ellery Hale’s 1908 discovery that sunspots coincide with strong magnetic fields, astronomers have become increasingly aware of the Sun’s magnetic field as a complex and subtle system. The familiar 11-year sunspot cycle is just the most obvious of its many manifestations. Recent advances in ground-based instrumentation have shown that sunspots and other large-scale phenomena that affect life on Earth are intricately related to small-scale magnetic processes whose inner workings happen on scales that are too small to be observed with current ground- and space-based telescopes. At the same time, using advances in computer science and technology, scientists have developed intriguing new theories about those small-scale processes, but they lack empirical observational data to verify the validity of their models. Scientists are positioned for a new era of discovery about the Sun and how it affects life on Earth, how distant stars work, and how to possibly control plasmas in laboratories. To achieve observational progress in solar astronomy, a solar telescope would require the capability to obtain the sharpest visual image possible using a telescope with optics sufficiently refined to produce that level of detail. Secondly, it would also need the capability of collecting as much “useful” solar radiation as possible and delivering it to the telescope’s instruments. Third, it would need to be capable of observing the widest spectrum of solar light to observe atmospheric properties from the various structures on the Sun. Neither the current MSO facility on Haleakalā nor any other current or planned ground-based or space-based solar telescope in the world has these capabilities. Purpose of the Proposed ATST Project. A primary goal of the proposed ATST Project would be to help scientists understand the solar magnetic activities and variability that drive space weather and the hazards it creates for astronauts and air travelers, and for communications to and from satellites. The proposed ATST Project would be unique in its ability to resolve fundamental length and time scales of the basic physical processes governing variations in solar activity. Just as fundamental problems in atomic, nuclear, and gravitational physics were revealed through earlier studies in solar physics, the proposed ATST Project would have a broad impact on astronomy and astrophysics, plasma physics for potential future power systems, solar-terrestrial relations and climatology and ultimately, prediction of solar activity.