In a written statement, the Thirty Meter Telescope project manager responds to today’s blockade of the Mauna Kea Access Road, saying construction crews “patiently waited for law enforcement to allow our workers the access to which they are entitled”.
by David Corrigan
MAUNA KEA – After being blocked from the construction site for what will be one of the world’s largest observatories, the project manager for the Thirty Meter Telescope has had enough.
“We’ve been patient,” said Gary Sanders, TMT Project Manager, “but the time has come to allow us access to the public roadway and our project site.”
For the past week, a steady resistance has amassed at the visitor center along the Mauna Kea Access Road. We filmed the group of protectors – as they wish to be called – on Thursday, during the state-wide Prince Kuhio Day holiday. Lanakila Mangauil, one of the leaders of the group that is holding kapu aloha, was on the mountain for most of the past week. However, the opponents of the $1.3 billion TMT project knew that today (March 30) would likely be the day of confrontation, as construction crews were set to return to the summit area after a long weekend off. When those crews drove up the mountain to begin work early this morning, they met a human blockade that prevented them from passing.
Big Island Video News asked TMT for a comment on the situation. Sanders offered this written response:
TMT, its contractors and their union employees have been denied access to our project site by a blockaded road. Our access via a public road has been blocked by protestors and we have patiently waited for law enforcement to allow our workers the access to which they are entitled. Today, we sat in our vehicles for eight hours awaiting a peaceful resolution from law enforcement. There was no resolution and our access continues to be denied. Gary Sanders, TMT Project Manager
Sanders referenced the long permitting process that led to this point.
Our permitting and sublease process was a lengthy seven-year public process and agency review. Our Conservation District Use Permit was upheld in a Contested Case hearing where the Hearings Officer concluded that TMT is consistent with the purpose of the Conservation District and should be granted its permit. The State Board of Land and Natural Resources agreed and issued a CDUP. Third Circuit Judge Greg Nakamura heard the CDUP appeal and ruled in favor of TMT. Subsequently, the Land Board approved TMT’s sublease with the University of Hawaii. Earlier this month, on March 6, the State Department of Land and Natural Resources issued a Notice to Proceed noting that TMT had met all preconstruction requirements in the CDUP and associated management plan. Gary Sanders, TMT Project Manager
However, many of the opponents believe the court battle has not been decided. “It is the TMT that is out of order for moving ahead with bulldozer when the legal questions have not been decided by a court of law,” wrote Kealoha Pisciotta of the group Mauna Kea Anaina Hou, one of the petitioners in the contested case, in the comment section of our website on Friday. “…to be clear the TMT case is in the Intermediate Court of Appeals and the 3rd Circuit Court now, as we speak (or I write), and the legal questions before the court are whether the TMT has meet all of the legal or regulatory requirements to allow it to be build on Mauna Kea or not.”
The Thirty Meter Telescope Project has been developed as a collaboration among Caltech, UC, the Association of Canadian Universities for Research in Astronomy (ACURA), and the national institutes of Japan, China, and India. Major funding has been provided by the Gordon & Betty Moore Foundation. A groundbreaking for the project was disrupted in October 2014, but TMT nevertheless moved into its construction phase.
Hmmm.. “At least the telescope will be used for study and not destruction.” critical thinking ? will this TMT float on a cloud or will they dig and desecrate one of the “most sacred” sites of the occupied “Neutral” Sovereign Hawaiian kingdom Nation State!!!
Please do your homework = NO TREATY/NO ANNEXATION just continued GENOCIDE since 1893. mahalo
The protectors have no choice but to stop this great mistake. Call upon the powers of Akua to stop all those that would desecrate our sacred temple! Kapu Mauna a Wakea!
The TMT will be built with great care for the local environment. Look how the development of the other scopes has led to a restoration of the native ecosystem on the mountain, through enhanced conservation from funds contributed. It is also a place of great learning for visitors from all over the world about our place in the universe, which indeed makes it a sacred place. Until the telescopes were built, the peak of Mauna Kea was all but forgotten by everyone.
So, you think it is OK to destroy a sacred place of the people who hold it sacred, so that you can go to this place (a metal and glass structure), and call that sacred. How about if you tell me where you go to church so I can go and level it to the ground, dig up the burials of your ancestors, build a latrine over it..invite everyone over to take a dump in it, and call it the sacred defecation zone.
The TMT seems to me to be a shrine on the Sacred Mountain honoring the gods. What better way to honor a sacred mountain by building such a great thing to increase the knowledge of the people the gods created?
Mauna Kea never forgotten its a sacred place., do you recall Sacred Falls on Oahu, killed 8 people and injured 50 others, on Mothers Day of 1999, it was once sacred, until it was turn into a park..”wonder what developer …………Our Island has many sacred places, Mauna Kea is the Heart of our island,
Hmmm.its the .same in India 20,000 black rats in Rajasthan India known as the Temple of Rats. should i throw my three cats in there, see what the people of India will do:) MAUNA KEA MOST SACRED LAND ON EARTH!!!!!!
Mauna Kea has been reborn after years of abuse. The mountain itself gives us this power to see the universe. It wants to give us this vision. It can only be because of the neglect it suffered and the care it now receives.
Do you think that the Pyramid at Gaza is less sacred because of tourists and scientists crawling over it? Selfish people make the world small.
Akua gave us the powers. It’s called a brain that we only use 3% of. The true remedy is in Common Law courts. Start removing corrupt public servants who don’t do the will of the people who pay them! Common Law also exists within the Kingdom of Hawaii. It’s called Natural Law. Use it!
HawaiiCommonLawGrandJury.com
http://scannedretina.com/2014/08/27/common-law-grand-jury-orders-to-all-federal-judges/
http://grandjury-snohomish.weebly.com
http://www.1215.org/lawnotes/lawnotes/grandjuryrules.htm
http://www.clgj.info/the-4th-branch-of-government.html
http://beforeitsnews.com/alternative/2013/10/common-law-grand-jury-movement-now-active-in-47-states-2800456.html
Honoring a sacred mountain by desecrating it? Huh?
Forgotten? More like left alone, dear. Common sense please.
Selfish people destroy nature for future generations in the name of greed and “progress”
Can someone please explain to me how putting a telescope on Mauna Kea will “destroy” Mauna Kea?
There are no environmental consequences. The mountain is so high up there is
basically no rain, that’s why the TMT will be up there in the first
place, and as for flora and fauna, well, I’ve heard the summit of the
mountain described as ‘barren as the surface of the Moon’.
Furthermore, the TMT will pay 1 MILLION DOLLARS in rent annually, and most of that
money will go towards the ENVIRONMENTAL PRESERVATION OF MAUNA KEA).
As for cultural objections, I don’t see the problem researching the
beginning and fate of the universe, stars and planets like our own and
other topics of astronomy and cosmology on Muana Kea when Mauna Kea is
considered a place of origins and is important to Hawaiian cosmology. It
seems to be complementary “A sacred science on a sacred mountain”.
Also,
if you say that the TMT will be ‘building over the graves of
ancestors’, please show me a map showing all the ancient burial places
on Mauna Kea alongside the planned location for the TMT.
In order that Hawaiian astronomy and
cosmology can benefit from the telescope, at least 15% of the research
time on the TMT should be reserved for Hawaiian universities. In
addition, the data from the telescope should be made publicly available
so that ordinary Hawaiians and non-Hawaiians can benefit from the TMT.
In addition, the astronomers who do research at the TMT should simplify
and explain their results to the public, so we can all learn about our
place in the universe.
I signed a petition to support the TMT and I
see no reason to protest against it. It is a benefit to Hawaii and the
world and needs to be built. If I lived in Hawaii I would be protesting
against the protestors. There is no reason not to build the TMT.
For those of you who want to save the TMT and the future of ground-based optical astronomy in the Northern Hemisphere, I recommend you sign this petition:
http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/wesupporttmt.html
Please explain how putting the TMT on Mauna Kea is “desecrating”
it. I think it would be honoring these gods you speak of to erect a temple of knowledge on their holy ground. Please see my post for more details.
Good job throwing up and shooting down that straw man argument.
Please explain how the TMT is the “destruction” of Mauna Kea. Please see my earlier post for more details.
Please explain how building the TMT amounts to “destruction of nature”. Please see my earlier post for more details.
Genocide is the mass slaughter of a population. Do you know of any mass slaughter of Hawaiians occurring since 1893?
gen·o·cide
ˈjenəˌsīd/
noun
noun: genocide; plural noun: genocides
the deliberate killing of a large group of people, especially those of a particular ethnic group or nation.
synonyms:mass murder, mass homicide, massacre; More
annihilation, extermination, elimination, liquidation, eradication, decimation, butchery, bloodletting;
pogrom, ethnic cleansing, holocaust
“a tyrant guilty of genocide”
And I don’t think it means ‘killing’ figuratively.