Aerial view of the flooded HF facility. Photo by Chéo Rosa.
The pumps are now operating after having been temporarily turned off because of mechanical problems. The water level around the main building has been reduced to about two inches, and clean up work has commenced.
Aerial view of the flooded HF facility. Photo by Chéo
Rosa.
On November 15, the petition by environmental groups to permanently end the pumping by the land authority was heard in the court in Arecibo. The judge did not reach a decision, but postponed the matter until January 1997. At that time all affected parties will be summoned in order to summarize for the court the impact of stopping the pumps. Only the land authority and the environmental groups are involved in the petition; the Observatory is merely an observer.
The two environmental groups are the Ciudadanos en defensa del ambiente (CEDDA) and the Ciudadanos del karso (CDK). At the time of these hearings, informal discussions with members of these organizations helped us to understand their position, which is not very flexible.
Hurricane Hortense caused significant, but repairable, damage to the HF facility. One wall of the main building was damaged and there are extensive problems in the antenna field including tilted towers and damaged wires. As noted above, clean up and repair operations have begun. If repairs are not finished in time for the February 1997 experiment, the Observatory will begin a campaign as soon as possible, scheduling experiments appropriate to the time of year.
The new proposals received for the February campaign have been refereed, and the ATAC (Arecibo time allocation committee) has reviewed the referee evaluations. John Harmon, who is in charge of telescope scheduling, will soon be notifying the proposers of the results.
Copyright 1996, Cornell University
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