Telescope backers to resume construction

Associated Press

The construction of a $1.4 billion telescope on land considered sacred by some Native Hawaiians will resume Wednesday, according to the nonprofit company behind the project.

Henry Yang, chairman of the Thirty Meter Telescope Observatory Board, in a statement said the board decided to move forward after more than two months of consultations.

The telescope is planned for the summit of Mauna Kea on Hawaii’s Big Island. It would be one of the world’s largest telescopes.

The company suspended construction in April after law enforcement arrested protesters for blocking the road to the summit and refusing to leave the construction site.

Kealoha Pisciotta, one of the protesters, and one of six plaintiffs challenging the telescope’s construction permit, said Sunday that she was shocked by Yang’s announcement.

“I believe that it demonstrates a lack of good faith,” she said by phone from Seattle, where she was on her way to give a talk on sacred Hawaii sites. The telescope is receiving major funding from the Gordon & Betty Moore Foundation in San Francisco. The announcement came a day after the Supreme Court of Hawaii announced it will hear oral arguments Aug. 27 on the case challenging the telescope permit, she said.