The state is taking direct aim at the Thirty Meter Telescope protesters by proposing an emergency rule that prevents them from camping near the Maunakea Visitor Information Station, TMT foes said Tuesday.
"It’s ridiculous," said Lanakila Mangauil, one of the protestleaders. "They’re directly supporting the TMT project."
Asserting a goal of promoting safe access to the summit, state officials Tuesday proposed an emergency rule designed to limit access to the top of Hawaii’s tallest mountain.
The proposal calls for restricting nighttime access to anyone not traveling in a vehicle on Mauna Kea Access Road from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m.
The restricted area includes land under the jurisdiction of the state Department of Land and Natural Resources within a mile of the road, a stretch that includes a public hunting area and forest reserve and extends below the visitor center but not all the way to Saddle Road.
The state Board of Land and Natural Resources will consider the new rule at its regularly scheduled meeting set for 9 a.m. Friday in Conference Room 132 of the Kalanimoku Building, 1151 Punchbowl St.
The rule also prohibits camping gear — backpacks, tents, blankets, tarpaulins and "other obvious camping paraphernalia" — within the restricted area at all hours.
Opponents of the $1.4 billion project, calling themselves protectors of the mountain, have been encamped along the road across from the Mauna Kea visitor center at the 9,200-foot level since late March.
On at least two occasions during that period, they have repelled attempts by TMT work crews to travel to the telescope’s construction site near the 13,796-foot summit.
The access road above the visitor center has remained closed to the public and open only to summit workers following the latest conflict, which resulted in 12 arrests June 24.
University of Hawaii spokesman Dan Meisenzahl said the university’s Office of Mauna Kea Management continues to assess the safety hazards created when protesters dislodged rocks and boulders and spread them on the road to help block the TMT convoy. He said the road likely would be closed for at least the rest of the week.
In announcing the proposed emergency rule Tuesday, state Attorney General Douglas Chin said that in recent weeks dozens of people have camped in the area or remained parked in cars for prolonged periods, either on or near Mauna Kea Access Road.
"Boulders and rock walls have been placed on the road. Invasive species have been introduced. Unauthorized toilets have been placed on the grounds. Individuals remaining in the area have reportedly caused visitors and workers to feel harassed. Consumption of water, which must be trucked up the mountain, is at record high usage. All of this has occurred in a partially graveled, steeply graded area without markings or guardrails," Chin said in a news release.
The emergency rule applies to everyone — not just a single group — and is intended to make the road safe enough to reopen, said Joshua Wisch, special assistant to the attorney general.
"The presence of boulders on that road, which is gravel and bordered by steep cliffs, does raise safety issues, and safety is the state’s primary concern," Wisch said in an email.
But Kealoha Pisciotta, leader of the Mauna Kea Hui, described the rule as "targeted" and "discriminatory," designed to prevent the protesters from protesting.
The intent of the rule doesn’t have anything to do with safety, she said, but rather it is aimed at paving an easier road for the TMT project.
"It’s a sad commentary, a sad response to kapu aloha (nonviolent protest) and aloha aina," she said.
Mangauil said there is no proof the protesters have been detrimental to the mountain environment or visitor center resources. On a normal day there are only 20 people at the camp, while perhaps five to 10 people are there overnight, Mangauil said. The protesters, he said, have been helpful to the information station workers and courteous to visitors.
Pisciotta and Mangauil said the proposed rule is only the latest measure in a campaign calculated by the state to infringe upon what they say is their right to maintain a presence on the mountain. The visitor center and its bathroom have been closed since June 24, and Office of Mauna Kea Management rangers have been regulating access to cultural practitioners, they said.
On Monday, Frank Kamehaloha Anuumealani Nobriga, kahuna of the Temple of Lono, filed suit in U.S. District Court in Honolulu challenging the Mauna Kea restrictions. The request for a temporary restraining order seeks a halt to time limitations and other restrictions imposed on faith practitioners.
The suit alleges that the limitations violate the First Amendment’s guarantee of religious practice. At the same time, the suit says, astronomers, water trucks, nitrogen trucks and others freely access the road to the summit with no restrictions.
Meisenzahl said the rangers have been trying their best to accommodate cultural practitioners but that they’ve also had to be cautious because of the potential hazards on the road. The law, he said, allows for access restrictions when safety is a concern.
Pisciotta and Mangauil said they’ve both traveled on the upper gravel portion of the road this week and that safety concerns are being overblown and simply used as an excuse to pressure the protesters.
"They’re trying to squeeze us, and they’re going to get squeezed back," Mangauil said.
Both said they expect a riled-up group to attend Friday’s Land Board meeting.
Wisch said the rule is only a proposal at this point and may be adopted, rejected or amended by the Land Board. By law, emergency rule-making is temporary, and emergency rules are in effect for 120 days.
