RE:RE:RE:$180 Million Cdn YTD in new Contracts ! Hawaii's attorney general working to reopen road for Thirty Meter Telescope construction
Jul 1, 2015, 3:01pm HST
Lorin Eleni Gill
Pacific Business News
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The planned $1.4 billion TMT Observatory for the summit of Mauna Kea on the Big Island.
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COURTESY TMT OBSERVATORY CORP.
The planned $1.4 billion TMT Observatory for the summit of Mauna Kea on the Big Island.
Hawaii Attorney General Doug Chin that he is working with the governor, UH, and land department to reopen Mauna Kea access road, which was closed last week after protestors placed rocks to block Thirty Meter Telescope construction crews, according to a statement released Wednesday.
“Deliberately building a rock wall in the middle of a road without warning threatens public safety,” he said. “Purposely placing boulders in a road could get someone killed. Commercial activities and camping in this protected area without a permit are against State regulations. This is not a statement against the content of the protest, but the conduct.”
Chin said the Attorney General’s office is prepared to “take all lawful steps to see the road re-opened with safe access to all.”
Hawaii's Mauna Kea access road could open this week, UH says the Road to telescopes atop Hawaii's Mauna Kea to be cleared and Rocks removed, but Mauna Kea access road to TMT still closed
Thirty Meter Telescope project opposition group Ku Kiai Mauna, or Stand Guard the Mountain, said earlier Wednesday it was not in communications with the governor’s office.
Ku Kiai Mauna leader and conference moderator Kahookahi Kanuha said at a news conference that Hawaii Gov. David Ige’s office has not reached out to the group. Ku Kiai Mauna is committed to public safety, but will not back down at Mauna Kea on the Big Island, he said.
“The only thing we are blocking is further desecration to Mauna a Wakea,” he said, surrounded by dozens of self-proclaimed 'protectors' at the foot of the King Kamehameha statue at Aliiolani Hale in Downtown Honolulu.
The protestors claim the $1.4 billion project was not properly vetted and is a breach of sacred land.
Some 300 protesters placed rocks and erected stone monuments along on the summit’s gravel road, blocking the restart of construction on June 24.
The TMT International Observatory Board and University of Hawaii’s Office of Mauna Kea Management are assessing damage to the road and deciding when to return to the mountain.
A project on Maui has also come under remonstration — last week, protestors blocked equipment from being transported to the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope at Haleakala. The Maui telescope has been under construction for more than two years.
Opponents of both projects await rulings by the Hawaii Supreme Court that will determine whether the Department of Land and Natural Resources followed proper conservation district use permit procedure.