The Maui County Council voted Wednesday to pass a resolution opposing a military proposal to build seven telescopes on the Haleakala volcano on the Hawaiian island of Maui.

The Air Force proposed the construction of a facility on the summit of Haleakala to track and catalog objects in space, according to the resolution. The proposed facility is called the Air Force Maui Optical Supercomputing Site Small Telescope Advanced Research Center and would consist of six telescopes enclosed in ground-mounted domes and one rooftop-mounted domed telescope.

Haleakala, Maui’s highest peak at over 10,000 feet above sea level, is already home to the Maui Space Surveillance Complex, which contains multiple Space Force telescopes. Local officials cited the environmental impacts of the facility and the cultural significance of Haleakala as reasons for their opposition to the new project.

“Haleakala is more than just a mountain; the summit is considered wao akua, or ‘realm of the gods,’ and continues to be a place of deep spirituality for Native Hawaiians to engage in some of these traditional practices,” the resolution reads.

The Space Force had not fully cleaned up the hundreds of gallons of diesel fuel it spilled at its Maui Space Surveillance Complex site in January 2023, according to the resolution. Constructing new telescopes without finishing the clean-up would be “insulting,” said Dane Uluwehiokalani Maxwell, a cultural adviser who was retained by the Space Force following the spill.

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“The summit has important environmental significance as the upper elevations of Haleakala provide vital habitat for endangered and endemic plants and animals,” according to the resolution.

The resolution urged the Air Force to take into account the opinions of community members who opposed the project and the National Park Service, Federal Aviation Administration, and the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources not to approve any permits for the facility.