STAND. COM. REP. NO. 3230

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.C.R. No. 145

       S.D. 1

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2014

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committees on Water and Land, Public Safety, Intergovernmental and Military Affairs, and Ways and Means, to which was referred S.C.R. No. 145 entitled:

"SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION ENCOURAGING WATER CONSERVATION BY CONSUMERS AND BUSINESSES AND INITIATIVES TO INCENTIVIZE AND EDUCATE CONSUMERS AND BUSINESSES ABOUT WATER CONSERVATION EFFORTS,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to encourage water conservation by consumers and businesses and initiatives to incentivize and educate consumers and businesses about water conservation efforts.

     Your Committees did not receive any testimony on this measure.

     Prior to the hearing on this measure, your Committees posted and made available for public review a proposed S.D. 1, which urges the Department of Land and Natural Resources to affirm its commitment to make the State the lead in the conservation, management, and protection of Hawaii's natural resources and to resist efforts by the federal government to expand federal jurisdiction over Hawaii's natural resources in the designation of critical habitats, expansion of current co-manager relationships, or creation of new co-manager relationships.

     Your Committees received testimony in support of the proposed S.D. 1 from two individuals.  Your Committees received testimony in opposition to the proposed S.D. 1 from one individual.  Your Committees received comments on the proposed S.D. 1 from the Department of Land and Natural Resources.

     Your Committees find that among the most significant of Hawaii's natural resources are the upland rainforests, which are the watersheds that feed underground water systems that are tapped via wells to provide the freshwater essential for all life and the streams, forests, brush, and grasslands that support valuable and irreplaceable natural ecosystems of endemic plants, fish, and wildlife found nowhere else on Earth.

The mission of the Department of Land and Natural Resources is to enhance, protect, conserve, and manage Hawaii's unique and limited natural, cultural, and historic resources held in public trust for current and future generations of the people of Hawaii and its visitors, in partnership with others from the public and private sectors.  The Department of Land and Natural Resources is responsible for managing, administering, and exercising control over public lands, water resources, certain ocean waters, navigable streams, coastal areas (except commercial harbors), minerals, and all interests therein.

Your Committees further find that the State has a partnership relationship with the federal government in the regulation of natural resources, as many federal laws affect natural resources.  However, you Committees believe that the lead in the conservation, management, and protection of Hawaii's natural resources should be the State, and that as much as possible, Hawaii's laws should be the primary laws used for the conservation, management, and protection of Hawaii's natural resources.

     Your Committees have amended this measure by adopting the proposed S.D. 1 and further amending the measure by making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Water and Land, Public Safety, Intergovernmental and Military Affairs, and Ways and Means that are attached to this report, your Committees concur with the intent and purpose of S.C.R. No. 145, as amended herein, and recommend its adoption in the form attached hereto as S.C.R. No. 145, S.D. 1.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Water and Land, Public Safety, Intergovernmental and Military Affairs, and Ways and Means,

____________________________ WILL ESPERO, Chair	____________________________ MALAMA SOLOMON, Chair
	____________________________ DAVID Y. IGE, Chair