Mauna Kea summit road to remain shut to ensure safety

The Mauna Kea summit will remain closed to the public well into next week while officials ensure the safety of a road damaged last week during the protest that blocked construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope, officials said Wednesday.

Among other things, officials are checking the stability of the slopes that might have been undermined when the protesters dug up boulders and scattered them on the earthen road and built rock walls and stone altars, said Dan Meisenzahl, spokesman for the University of Hawaii, which oversees the management of the summit area.

State Attorney General Doug Chin said he’s working with Gov. David Ige, UH and the departments of Land and Natural Resources and Public Safety and taking “all lawful steps” to see the road reopened with safe access to all.

“Deliberately building a rock wall in the middle of a road without warning threatens public safety,” Chin said in a statement Wednesday. “Placing boulders in a road could get someone killed.”

During a news conference Wednesday in Honolulu, the leaders of the Mauna Kea protesters said they voluntarily agreed to clear the stretch of scattered boulders and removed four rock walls and two altars from the road, an effort that was completed Friday.

“It is unclear to us the reason for the continued closure of the road leading to the summit, but it is not because of anything done by the protectors,” said Kaho‘okahi Kanuha, leader of the group, using his preferred term for the protesters.

Kanuha, speaking under a midday sun with more than 100 supporters behind him at the King Kamehameha Statue in Honolulu, criticized Ige for describing the placement of rocks in the road as an act of vandalism.

“This is undoubtedly a silly and irresponsible use of that word,” he said. “Vandalism is defined as an action involving deliberate destruction of or damage to public or private property. The only acts of vandalism I have seen on Mauna a Wakea have been committed by TMT themselves and ultimately the state of Hawaii as they have chosen to enforce TMT’s so-called right to proceed with their desire to desecrate Mauna a Wakea.”

(Mauna a Wakea is the original name for Mauna Kea and refers to the sky father god, according to the UH Institute for Astronomy.)

Vowing to continue the fight to prevent the desecration of a sacred place, Kanuha and others urged the governor not to deploy the Hawaii National Guard as has been rumored.

“Our understanding is that the governor has already asked the National Guard to put together a strategy. That’s what our sources tell us,” said Andre Perez, a UH teaching assistant who was arrested last week on the summit road.

Ige spokeswoman Jodi Leong said the governor has not asked the National Guard to put together a strategy.

“Nor is he entertaining the possibility of calling in the National Guard at this time,” she said in an email.

Kanuha, who was also arrested last week, said throwing the National Guard into the mix would be irresponsible and unwarranted and create an even greater public safety threat.

Perez said the spat could get ugly.

“Anything could happen, but I’m confident our people would never break (nonviolent) kapu aloha,” he said,

Perez added that the state is putting the squeeze on the protest groups by closing the Mauna Kea visitor center, its bathrooms and drinking fountain last week.

“It’s really just an underhanded approach by the state,” he said.

Meisenzahl said, however, that maintaining the visitor center at the 9,200-foot level had become a strain on the university, especially with increasing use of the facilities. Water usage has spiked, the septic tank is rapidly filling and servicing the portable toilets has increased, among other things, he said.

“We tried to keep it open as long as we could,” he said.

As for the road, checking the stability of the slopes is only part of it, Meisenzahl said. Officials are also trying to figure out what to do with all the loose rocks and boulders. He said they may be incorporated into a project to help shore up a hairpin turn that needs bolstering.

Kanuha said the group has decided to break down the campsite and enter “a time of hoomalu to reflect, re-strategize, reform, re-energize, rebuild and reorganize.”

“We are committed as ever to protecting Mauna a Wakea from further desecration, and when TMT and its affiliates attempt to ascend the sacred mountain of Wakea, we will be there in the hundreds, if not thousands,” he said.