Air Force Looks to Add Telescopes on Sacred Hawaii Volcano as Outrage Continues over Fuel Spill

A year and seven months after 700 gallons of fuel spilled at a Space Force observatory located atop a sacred Hawaiian volcano on Maui, officials are still finalizing a plan to remediate the site, and the delay is angering local government officials.

Back on Jan. 29, 2023, a diesel fuel pump for a backup generator at the Maui Space Surveillance Complex nestled atop the more than 10,000-foot summit of Haleakalā malfunctioned after a lightning strike, spilling the fuel onto what native Haiwaiians believe to be sacred ground.

In the nearly 20 months since that spill, Department of the Air Force officials have not yet finalized a plan to clean up the rest of the contaminated fuel and to return the soil back to the dormant volcano. Additionally, while that contamination is still being cleaned up, the service is pushing plans for a new project that would add seven more telescopes to Haleakalā that received fierce condemnation from the Maui County Council.

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A scathing June 20 resolution from the government body against the new project said that “erecting even more telescopes on Haleakalā — when the military has yet to complete cleanup and soil-remediation efforts within the same footprint — would be insulting.”

The Maui County Council noted that the summit of Haleakalā is considered a “sacred place” that it is often used for religious ceremonies and prayers to the native Hawaiian gods.

A July 2024 fact sheet from the Department of the Air Force said that the site of the spill is in the “Selection of a Cleanup Remedy for the Remedial Action” phase, where it has detailed five action plans to the public for removing the remaining fuel contaminants and restoring the sacred soil to the volcano.

“Since January 2023, the lighter fuel components are expected to have mostly evaporated,” the Department of the Air Force fact sheet states. “Remaining components have likely adhered to soil and porous rock surfaces, reducing fuel from seeping further into the ground and impacting groundwater.”

While those efforts are ongoing, Department of the Air Force officials are pushing for the creation of the Air Force Maui Optical Supercomputing Site Small Telescope Advanced Research Center, or AMOS-STAR.

Officials are aiming for that facility to consist of “six telescopes enclosed in ground-

mounted domes, one rooftop-mounted domed telescope, and use of an existing building for communication equipment and an optics laboratory for the rooftop telescope,” according to a Department of Defense notice.

The Maui County Council’s statement condemning the AMOS-STAR project also expressed concerns about “the potential human-health impacts [that] the high level of microwave transmissions that would be emitted from the project could have on these communities and their residents.”

The delays in remediating the fuel spill and the pushback against the AMOS-STAR project are another chapter in the historically tense relationship the Department of Defense has with the Hawaiian people.

There have been other recent mishaps that have also strained that relationship.

In 2021, 20,000 gallons of jet fuel leaked from the Navy’s Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility into Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam’s water supply near Honolulu. Some residents began vomiting, having headaches and exhibiting unexplained rashes in the wake of the contamination, the Department of Veterans Affairs detailed.

The service is seeking public comment on the preferred cleanup method for the fuel spill at the Maui Space Surveillance Complex though Monday.

A Year After Space Force Fuel Spill on Sacred Hawaii Volcano, Work on a Cleanup Plan Continues

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