STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2053

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 2182

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2014

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committees on Energy and Environment and Public Safety, Intergovernmental and Military Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 2182 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO SOLID WASTE,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

     (1)  Clarify that the solid waste management surcharge applies to solid waste shipped outside the State for disposal;

     (2)  Clarify that the solid waste management structure applies to solid waste disposed of at waste-to-energy facilities; and

     (3)  Increase the solid waste management surcharge using a tiered structure commensurate with the impact of the means of disposal on the Department of Health.

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Health and City and County of Honolulu Department of Environmental Services.  Your Committees received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Building Industry Association of Hawaii, The Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii, and General Contractors Association of Hawaii.

     Your Committees find that two major issues face the solid waste regulatory program:  the need for additional funding and addressing the evolving waste management field and its changing technologies.  In 2013, the solid waste regulatory program oversaw the management of over two million tons of waste, managed nearly two hundred complaints, issued nearly one hundred warning letters and nine enforcement actions, and responded to over nine hundred public inquiries.  Despite a growing workload for the program, however, the solid waste management surcharge, the program's primary funding source, has not increased in over sixteen years.

     Your Committees further find that there are waste-to-energy facilities that are proposing to use new technologies to which the current solid waste management surcharge does not apply.  Modifications to the surcharge are necessary since these facilities are permitted and regulated by the solid waste program.

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Energy and Environment and Public Safety, Intergovernmental and Military Affairs that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2182 and recommend that it pass Second Reading and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Energy and Environment and Public Safety, Intergovernmental and Military Affairs,

____________________________ WILL ESPERO, Chair

____________________________ MIKE GABBARD, Chair