Clean it up
I am extremely dismayed by the comments made by the anti-Thirty Meter Telescope protest leaders in a recent article (Tribune-Herald, Oct. 25) regarding placing the educational Hoku Kea telescope at Halepohaku.
They’re opposed to locating it there because it will negatively affect the environment and bring additional traffic to the mountain.
These protesters need to look in mirror, as their TMT protest encampment at Maunakea Access Road has negatively impacted an environmentally sensitive area.
Their encampment contains rubbish, abandoned vehicles, permanent campsites with tents, etc. In addition, there are metal barrels that contain an unknown substance near the permanent camping area.
The state and county have enabled this campsite to remain. The county graded a campsite area with taxpayer-funded manpower and materials. This action should’ve triggered a permitting requirement, but did not.
I’ve also repeatedly complained to the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, the owner of the land under the encampment, but have only received lip service.
This eyesore needed to be cleaned up yesterday, but it still remains.
I’m afraid nothing will be done until the TMT impasse is resolved. In other words, these protesters intend to hold the entire community hostage with this eyesore until the TMT decides to leave or scrap the project entirely. If this is indeed their intention, it goes to show they don’t care about the environment one bit.
The DHHL and the anti-TMT protesters need to clean up their encampment by Maunakea Access Road immediately, which will allow this environmentally sensitive area heal.
Aaron Stene
Kailua-Kona
Hypocritical protesters
I read in the Tribune-Herald (Oct. 25) that some of the Thirty Meter Telescope opponents are also opposed to putting a UH-Hilo teaching telescope at Halepohaku.
They suggested that somehow putting the small (8-feet-tall) telescope at that site — which already has various buildings — would be harmful to the mauna.
Have these opponents seen the mess they left at the base of Maunakea Access Road? It’s disgusting!
I drove over the “Saddle” recently, and it’s still a mess up there — more than a year after the protests started. Looks like a homeless camp.
Clean it up already, and start citing people for illegal dumping/littering.
Hypocrisy much?
A. Yamamoto
Hilo