STAND. COM. REP. NO. 598-24

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2024

RE: H.B. No. 1691

H.D. 1

Honorable Scott K. Saiki

Speaker, House of Representatives

Thirty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2024

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Energy & Environmental Protection and Water & Land, to which was referred H.B. No. 1691 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE ENVIRONMENT,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to require individual wastewater systems that are near the shoreline, or likely to pollute groundwater, to include denitrification capacity.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Land and Natural Resources; University of Hawaiʻi Sea Grant College Program and Water Resources Research Center; one member of the Kauaʻi County Council; one member of the Hawaiʻi County Council; Center for Global Discovery and Conservation Science; Hawaii Marine Education and Research Center; Hawaiʻi Reef and Ocean Coalition; Wastewater Alternatives & Innovations; Moana Ohana LLC; and numerous individuals. Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of Health.

Your Committee finds that coral reefs that are protected from wastewater pollutants are better able to recover from ocean warming events. This measure requires newly installed or modified wastewater systems that are near the shoreline or likely to pollute groundwater to include denitrification capacity, which ensures that these systems meet certain on-site residential wastewater treatment standards.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Narrowing the wastewater systems that are required to include denitrification capacity to those that are newly installed or modified;

(2) Changing wastewater systems that are required to include denitrification capacity to those that are located two hundred feet or less from a shoreline, instead of fifty feet;

(3) Adding a definition for "denitrification capacity"; and

(4) Making a technical, nonsubstantive amendment for the purposes of clarity, consistency, and style.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Energy & Environmental Protection and Water & Land that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1691, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1691, H.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Finance.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Energy & Environmental Protection and Water & Land,

____________________________ LINDA ICHIYAMA, Chair

____________________________ NICOLE E. LOWEN, Chair