After months of delays, the question of whether construction work on the Thirty Meter Telescope has begun will be answered in November.
In 2017, then-Department of Land and Natural Resources Chair Suzanne Case granted the University of Hawaii in Hilo a conservation district use permit for TMT to use the Maunakea summit land, on the condition that work begin at the site within two years and be completed within 12 years of the permit’s issuance.
Case in 2019 then granted a two-year extension to that condition — called Condition No. 4 — owing to the protests at the Maunakea Access Road at that time, pushing the deadline for work to begin until 2021.
But in 2021, Case determined that some preliminary work done in 2019, including the removals of unpermitted ahu near the construction site and moving vehicles to the project location, was sufficient to fulfill Condition No. 4.
Hawaiian activist group Mauna Kea Hui in 2021 challenged that determination, arguing that what little work was done in 2019 does not constitute the beginning of TMT’s construction.
The Board of Land and Natural Resources had scheduled a hearing on Condition No. 4 in July before postponing it, but the issue has been rescheduled for discussion on Nov. 7.
Attorney Bianca Isaki, representing Mauna Kea Hui, said the case should be open-and-shut, adding that the Hui has “good evidence” to support its position that work on the TMT has not started on the summit.
“All we’re asking the board to do is reopen the case and ask for more evidence,” Isaki said. “It’s a simple case, I think. The permit was granted in 2017, and it said two years.”
Isaki added that it was “galling” for the BLNR to postpone the case in July following a request from TMT’s attorneys, who claimed they would be unavailable on the scheduled date.
“They probably wouldn’t give us the same courtesy,” said Mauna Kea Hui member Kealoha Pisciotta, explaining that the July delay disproportionately impacted Hui members compared to TMT attorneys. “We had flights scheduled, we had taken time off work, it was very disruptive to us.
“But this is BLNR’s modus operandi,” Pisciotta went on. “They don’t consider that we live on different islands and have to travel to get there in person. The system we have set up requires this to be a public process … but how can this be considered the people’s process?”
The Nov. 7 hearing will be limited only to oral arguments by the parties on each side, limited to 15 minutes per person.
Isaki said that, if the BLNR rules in favor of the Hui, it will rescind the 2019 Condition No. 4 extension, which will revoke the permit itself. If it rules the other way, however, she said the Hui will have options to continue challenging the matter, possibly appealing the case to the courts.
A UH spokesperson told the Tribune-Herald on Monday that the university cannot comment on the matter, and representatives for the state’s Maunakea Stewardship and Oversight Authority did not respond to a request for comment.
Email Michael Brestovansky at mbrestovansky@hawaiitribune-herald.com.