MAUNA KEA, HAWAII >> After a weeklong standoff, Gov. David Ige on Tuesday asked Hawaii County Mayor Harry Kim to “coordinate” state and county efforts to resolve the impasse over the Thirty Meter Telescope.
Ige also traveled to Hawaii island Tuesday to discuss the controversy with Kim, and shortly before sunset Ige visited the Mauna Kea camp of the telescope opponents to be greeted with lei, chants and hula performances honoring the mountain, which many Hawaiians consider sacred.
Ige’s decision to tap Kim to lead negotiations with the well-organized and determined protesters could signal new delays for the $1.4 billion TMT project.
Some Hawaii County police have privately criticized Kim for pulling county police officers back from controversial actions such as arresting elder protesters last week, and Kim’s administrations have not been known for rapid, firm decisions.
>> Photo Gallery: Thirty Meter Telescope opponents spend ninth day at Mauna Kea
Kim agreed Tuesday that Ige in effect has asked him to deal with the problem on Mauna Kea, “and I have told him I would try.”
“As far as how I’m going to do it, I’ve already said, I said in a silent prayer, and the truth of the prayer is, ‘Guide me to do the right thing in the right way.’ And the first thing I’m going to do, and my staff is already working on it, I’m going to have a first meeting with some of the Hawaiian leaders to discuss where we can go and how we can get there.”
“It’s not going to be me, and the governor, I told him, ‘It’s not going to be you.’ We have to go with what is out here and see how they feel we can move forward. And that’s how I’m going to handle it,” Kim said.
When Ige visited the camp on Mauna Kea at about 5:30 p.m., he was asked whether his decision to turn the negotiations over to Kim represented a failure of his leadership.
“Absolutely not,” Ige replied. “There are many activities that are required to be here, and it does require someone to be on island. This was something that the mayor and I talked with at length. We’ve been in conversations daily, multiple times a day, and we thought that having Harry support me in this capacity would be the best way to gather people to talk about the challenges and find the best way forward.”
State officials estimated 1,000 opponents of the TMT project gathered Tuesday on Mauna Kea. Kim said he had never before seen a gathering in Hawaii like the one at Mauna Kea.
“This is something special because this is of aloha,” Kim said Tuesday. “All the rest I’ve seen is of anger. So, there’s a big difference here. To get this kind of gathering with aloha — there’s always anger, but not here, and it’s great. I love it.”
Ige said in a written statement Tuesday that while Kim “will be taking the lead, hard decisions will need to be jointly supported by the state and county and we will be working together to determine next steps that are in the best interests of all the people of Hawaii.”
Kim “is closest to the situation and the impacts are greatest on the island he leads,” Ige said in his statement.
Kahookahi Kanuha, a leader in the Thirty Meter Telescope opposition, said at a news conference on Mauna Kea that he is hopeful Ige’s decision to allow Kim to take the lead was “a positive step in the right direction.”
“Mayor Harry Kim … lives in this community. He knows this community. And so I’m hopeful that his leadership would be much more understanding and, I guess, that we would have a better path and better chance of moving forward in a way that’s beneficial to all through his leadership.”
The term “beneficial to all,” Kanuha added, includes TMT if the project is built in the Canary Islands instead of on Mauna Kea.
Kanuha also urged Ige to relent on a prohibition on any cultural practitioners visiting the summit of Mauna Kea for Native Hawaiian customary practices.
Kanuha said his group asked a week ago for such access, limited to one car a day, in return for allowing crews from existing observatories to access the summit for work.
This bargain, Kanuha said, was denied as non-negotiable despite cultural access being constitutionally protected.
“We are calling on the governor to make that concession,” Kanuha said, adding that it would be helpful if officials with the observatories on Mauna Kea supported TMT opponents on this issue. “We do not want to obstruct your access,” he said.
Also Tuesday the Gemini Observatory on Mauna Kea said that at 7:45 a.m. a car carrying technicians from the observatory was stopped by activists from entering Mauna Kea Access Road.
“The observatory had been assured access the previous day in conversation with law enforcement, and the Office of Maunakea Management,” the observatory said in a statement. “Despite prior public statements indicating observatory technicians would not be denied access to the telescopes, activists today contradicted their earlier position.”
“Activists told observatory personnel that without a formal, public letter from the observatories — supporting activists’ demands of the state — access for critical technical maintenance is no longer supported,” according to the observatory.
Kanuha said there was a discussion between the Gemini staff and the TMT opponents — who call themselves kiai, or “protectors” — and that the Gemini staff decided to retreat.
University of Hawaii spokesman Dan Meisenzahl said the protesters agreed early on to allow rangers, support staff at the visitors center and telescope maintenance crews to travel to the summit, but not astronomers.
The rangers, along with water trucks and visitor center staff, have been allowed up each day, he said.
Tuesday’s incident was the first time since July 16 the observatories attempted to send up their maintenance crews, and they were turned away, Meisenzahl said.
Gemini officials said the observatory uses gaseous helium in a cooling circuit to maintain stable low temperatures for two delicate instruments used in astronomical observations. The cooling system has become unstable, which requires specialized technicians to shut it down in order to prevent damage to the instruments and the cooling circuit itself.
The Department of Land and Natural Resources’ Division of Conservation and Resources Enforcement on Tuesday also released the names of the 38 people who were arrested July 17 on Mauna Kea for blocking Mauna Kea Access Road after being told by law enforcement to leave.
They are Walter Ritte, Loretta Ritte, Abel Lui, Liko-O-Kalani Martin, Deborah Lee, Maxine Kahauelio, Kelii Ioane, Raynette Robinson, Marie Alohalani Brown, Kaliko Lehua Kanaele, James Naniole, James Albertini, Richard L. Deleon, Renee Price, Pualani Kanahele, Daniel Li, Patricia Green, William K. Freitas, Tomas Belsky, Ana Kahoopii, Daycia-Dee Chun, Flora Hookano, Desmond Haumea, Linda Leilani Lindsey-Kaapuni, Edleen Peleiholani, Gene Burke, Luana Neff, Carmen Lindsey, Deena Oana-Hurwitz, Wilson Wong, Damian Trask, Mililani Trask, Mahea Kalima, Donna Leong, Haloley Reese, Sharol Awai, John Turalde and Alika Desha.
DLNR initially said 33 people were arrested July 17. That number was changed to 34 and now to 38.
