Protesters continued their vigil against the planned $1.4 billion Thirty Meter Telescope without incident Wednesday as no work crews attempted to travel up to the construction site at the summit of Mauna Kea for the second day in a row.
Meanwhile, some prominent Native Hawaiians sat down with Gov. David Ige and University of Hawaii President David Lassner in separate meetings Wednesday to present the concerns and issues of the Mauna Kea Hui protesters. Sign-carrying demonstrators also appeared at the UH Board of Regents meeting in Manoa.
The telescope, billed as the world’s largest and expected to take a decade to build, is planned to sit on more than five acres the university subleases from the state.
A party that included UH Hawaiian Studies professor Jon Osorio and activists Walter Ritte and Laulani Teale presented a letter to the governor Wednesday asking for him to halt the project and, at the very least, stop construction until legal appeals are exhausted in court.
Asked about the meeting Wednesday afternoon, Cindy McMillan, the governor’s spokeswoman, said it "helped create a common understanding of the issues."
Lassner also offered a one-line statement: "I greatly appreciated their positive interest in trying to bring together divergent viewpoints."
On the mountain Wednesday, about 100 demonstrators gathered at Mauna Kea Access Road at the 9,000-foot level, the same place where they stopped work vehicles from reaching the construction site Monday.
On Tuesday, police warned the protesters they would face arrest if they continued to block vehicles on the road.
Kealoha Pisciotta of Mauna Kea Anaina Hou said the "protectors" are unlikely to back down.
"We’re in this for the long haul," she said.
TMT Observatory Corp., the nonprofit heading the construction, offered this statement from Project Manager Gary Sanders: "TMT respects the rights of everyone to lawfully express their viewpoint," but "following a lengthy seven-year public and agency review, all required state and county permits were issued to the Thirty Meter Telescope allowing construction to proceed.
"While we respect dissenting opinions, TMT has been granted the right to quiet enjoyment of its leased property and fully expects law enforcement to do their duty, enforce the law and open the public roadway to everyone including TMT, its contractors and their union employees," Sanders said.
When completed, the telescope would become the 14th observatory operating in the mountaintop Mauna Kea Science Reserve. While the reserve spreads out over 11,288 acres, the university can use only 525 acres. The rest is conservation land.
