LSST E-News |
Regional Authorities Approve LSST’s Environmental Declaration
Anna Spitz and Victor Krabbendam
Chile’s environmental commission of the Coquimbo IVth Region, Comisión Regional del Medio Ambiente (COREMA), completed its final review and approved the environmental declaration, Declaracion De Impacto Ambiental (DIA), that the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) prepared on behalf of LSST and submitted to the national environmental protection agency, Comisión Nacional del del Medio Ambiente (CONAMA). This approval effectively permits LSST to build and operate on Cerro Pachón.
AURA’s 85,000 acre property that includes both Cerro Pachón and Cerro Tololo, in Chile is already designated a scientific preserve. This simplifies the environmental permitting process but CONAMA still requires that each new significant development on the preserve produce an environmental declaration prior to use of the site. This declaration has similar submittal requirements to US EPA environmental impact statements, and is a one-time activity. AURA submitted the 100-page DIA describing LSST’s development and operations plans in July to CONAMA. Elements of this report included flora and fauna surveys, evaluation of physical impacts to the site, and how any impacts will be mitigated. In all, seventeen Chilean agencies reviewed the submittal. As part of the evaluation, the COREMA regional assessment committee made a site visit in August (see LSST E-News October 2008), held public meetings (see the government report of the meeting), provided comments, and requested responses to the concerns of the agencies.
COREMA approves LSST’s environmental declaration
“The process was positive, collaborative, and thorough” says Enrique Figueroa, Manager of AURA Observatory Support Services and the lead of the LSST DIA effort. After a series of comments, questions, and responses, AURA’s final presentation to COREMA representatives occurred in December. See the regional government’s notice of the meeting. Final approval was immediate. This approval authorizes site construction activities for LSST to begin immediately.
This is a significant milestone for the LSST project. “Environmental permitting, even for low impact astronomical observatories, can often cause projects difficulty. Completing the DIA enables us to proceed with initial site leveling and further geotechnical testing of the site,” reports Jeff Barr, the Project Architect on the LSST Telescope and Site Team responsible for summit facility and site development. Many thanks go to Enrique Figueroa and his staff for their help in completing the DIA process for LSST.
LSST is a public-private partnership. Funding for design and development activity comes from the National Science Foundation, private gifts, grants to universities, and in-kind support at Department of Energy laboratories and other LSSTC Institutional Members:
Brookhaven National Laboratory; California Institute of Technology; Carnegie Mellon University; Chile; Columbia University; Google Inc.; Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics; Johns Hopkins University; Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology at Stanford University; Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network, Inc.; Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Los Alamos National Laboratory; National Optical Astronomy Observatory; Princeton University; Purdue University; Research Corporation for Science Advancement; Rutgers University; SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory; The Pennsylvania State University; The University of Arizona; University of California, Davis; University of California, Irvine; University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign; University of Pennsylvania; University of Pittsburgh; University of Washington; Vanderbilt University
LSST E-News is a free email publication of the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope Project. It is for informational purposes only, and the information is subject to change without notice.
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