Several dozen demonstrators assembled Thursday along Mauna Kea Access Road, where organizers say protesters plan to camp out indefinitely in hopes of halting work atop Mauna Kea on what is expected to be the world’s largest telescope.
The University of Hawaii last year approved a sublease agreement for the controversial $1.4 billion Thirty Meter Telescope project, which is expected to create 300 construction jobs and up to 140 permanent jobs. The sublease provides approximately 9 acres on land the university leases from the state Board of Land and Natural Resources.
The project is being designed and financed by TMT Observatory Corp., a Pasadena, Calif.-based nonprofit with California and Canadian universities as partners along with scientists from Japan, China and India. TMT selected Mauna Kea in 2009 as its preferred site, and the Land Board in 2013 approved erecting the telescope atop the Hawaii island volcano following lengthy environmental reviews.
With legal challenges to the project’s permit still pending in court, the Land Board issued a so-called notice to proceed March 6, allowing construction to begin. UH says the area is now an active construction site, and tractor-trailers earlier this week hauled excavators and other equipment to the project site.
"We plan to be here indefinitely if needed," Kamahana Kealoha, a Waimea native and facilitator for the advocacy group Sacred Mauna Kea, said by phone Thursday from Mauna Kea. "We know and feel that we’re being cornered by TMT into a position where we’ll eventually have to blockade access. We’re not having an 18-story telescope on our mauna," or mountain.
A TMT spokeswoman did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment.
Kealoha estimated 50 people had gathered by midday Thursday, with "double or triple the amount of people driving by in support or dropping off food." He described the crowd as a mix of Hawaiians and non-Hawaiians from across the state who view Mauna Kea as a sacred cultural site.
Some demonstrators held upside-down Hawaiian flags, symbolizing distress, while others carried hand-painted signs with messages that included, "We are Protectors, Not Protestors," "Bulldoze your own temple" and "Aloha Aina," or love of the land.
The TMT project, once complete, would add to 13 observatories operating in what’s known as the Mauna Kea Science Reserve, an 11,000-acre parcel that essentially covers most of the land above the 12,000-foot elevation level. UH is allowed to use the land as a scientific complex under a long-term lease with the state.
Cultural practitioner Lanakila Mangauil of Hamakua said after hearing that trailers were hauling equipment to the summit, he used social media to gather supporters.
"There’s already been a substantial amount of damage, and we are drawing the line with TMT," Mangauil said in a phone interview. "There’s already 13 telescopes now, a network of roads carved through it. There’s a lot of damage. We, as the people of Hawaii, as Native Hawaiians, as people who care about the environment and our natural resources, are taking a stand. We will not allow further desecration of our mountain."
UH spokesman Dan Meisenzahl said while the university wasn’t closely monitoring the demonstration, it is concerned about the safety of anyone on the mountain.
"It’s something that we have to ensure, that people have a safe place to protest, and we respect the feeling for the protest," he said. "Our top priority is health and safety. We’re the stewards of the mountain, and we have to assure access to everybody who wants to go up. That includes protesters, tourists, local residents, our staff."
He added, "We don’t want anything ugly to happen up there, and we’re hoping for the best."
With a primary segmented mirror measuring 30 meters wide, or nearly 100 feet, the project’s website says the cutting-edge telescope will be three times larger than the most powerful optical telescopes in use now, and allow astronomers to explore forming galaxies "at the very edge of the observable universe, near the beginning of time."
It is expected to take about 10 years to build and be operational in 2024.
