They had their chance and they blew it.
The TMT developers had 12 long years to build something on the mountain and couldn’t pound one single nail.
TMT might stand for Thirty Meter Telescope, but it really means too much trouble.
After a decade of hearings, protests, piling kindly kupuna into police vans, and calling in half the cops on the island, they couldn’t do it. The Hawaiians were too much for them. The Hawaiian spirit was too strong and protected Mauna Kea.
After all the hula and hoopla, the big moment has finally arrived. The DLNR will decide if the monstrosity will stay or go.
It all hinges on whether any actual work has been done to build the telescope. Attorney for the opposition, Bianca Isaki, explained in the WHT on Oct. 23, that if no work was done by 2021 the building permit will be revoked, and it’s pau for TMT.
The developers are clutching at a flimsy straw saying that they moved some Ahu stones and drove trucks around before the deadline and this was work. Nice try but this is not “beginning construction” only “preparing for construction.” Getting ready to do a job is not doing the job. Getting ready doesn’t count.
If this were true things like ordering materials, drawing blueprints, meetings in other countries, phone calls, talking to secretaries and business lunches could be called construction. The ahu and the trucks are on this list and have nothing to do with building, saying they are is not only false but ridiculous.
It’s building on the mountain, not talking in the office.
Construction has to be viewable, physical work on a structure, like pouring cement, sawing lumber, and putting up windows. Nothing substantial was done.
They failed to meet the deadline. For this reason the permit must be revoked, and if the DLNR, namely Director Susanne Case, has the integrity to honor the agreement, the TMT will shut down.
The TMT trucks would drive away, their debris would be swept from the mountain and majestic Mauna Kea would again stand pure and clean above.
But there is always the snake that rises to deceive. The developers know they lost the game so they made a last ditch effort to dazzle the decision makers. In the Nov. 3 WHT the project manager tried to weave his spell, it was all just a high-sounding smoke screen, a verbal Hail Mary a few days before the hearing.
He went on about how parts of the telescope are almost done, systems are in place, millions have been spent, plans made, teachers and youth groups organized. He almost said they sold girl scout cookies at Walmart.
He hoped his fancy wordwork would blind us to the fact they did everything but build something, and that is the bottom line. Time to accept defeat.
If the Department of Land and Natural Resources wants to live up to its name and preserve the natural resources of Mauna Kea, and more importantly has any honor at all, they will do their job and revoke the permit.
Time to quit struggling and give our island some peace. Aloha, TMT.
Dennis Gregory writes a bi-monthly column for West Hawaii Today and welcomes your column at makewavess@yahoo.com