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Infringements of country's astronomy area protection laws challenging to police, global conference hears
Wind farms and mineral prospecting threaten to interfere with optical astronomy in South Africa despite laws that protect the country’s astronomy sites, an astronomer has warned.
Ramotholo Sefako, head of telescope operations at the South African Astronomical Observatory, gave the warning in his 6 August talk at the International Astronomical Union general assembly in Cape Town.
South Africa has a law from 2007 that allows the science minister to designate astronomy protection areas where special rules apply to limit light and radio pollution that could interfere with observations.
But now those laws are being put to the test, and it’s not clear whether bodies governing astronomy in the country have the resources to police and challenge infringements, the conference heard.
Light pollution
Sefako said wind power turbines going up near the country’s Southern African Large Telescope (Salt) close to the town of Sutherland in the Northern Cape province could exacerbate light pollution in the area, chosen as the telescope’s site for its dark and clear skies.
South Africa’s civil aviation authority requires lights to be fitted atop wind turbines to warn passing aircraft. Sefako said the authority had indicated earlier that it would allow turbines near the telescope to have lights that switch off whenever no planes are overhead to mitigate the effect on observations.
However, the authority has since “reneged” on that, said Sefako. “This really is a serious issue because a lot of the agreement with the wind farms was based on the premise that the lighting on those wind farms would only happen when there are aircraft passing above or in the vicinity of those farms.”
Research Professional News reached out to the South African Civil Aviation Authority for a comment, but did not receive a reply before publication.
Prospecting loophole
Even worse than the wind turbines, Sefako said, was licences being granted for mineral prospecting near the telescope, which Sefako branded “a nightmare”.
The country’s astronomy protection law bans straight-up mining in protected areas. But, said Sefako, it says nothing about prospecting. “There are companies that are taking advantage of that,” he told the conference. One company has a licence to prospect right in the middle of Salt’s protected area, he said.
Sefako called on the country’s Department of Minerals and Petroleum Resources to engage with the Department of Science, Research and Innovation over the granting of mineral prospecting in and around protected astronomy sites.
“The lesson that should be learned is that we probably need education of the communities and stakeholders around the observatories regarding light pollution mitigation to benefit astronomy and better communication with government and between departments to make sure they aren’t impacting each other negatively,” he said.
He also said it wasn’t clear that the country’s Astronomy Management Authority or the National Research Foundation, which oversees SAAO, have the resources to be able to challenge infringements of the country’s astronomy protection law.