STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1038-24

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2024

RE: H.B. No. 2743

H.D. 2

Honorable Scott K. Saiki

Speaker, House of Representatives

Thirty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2024

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Finance, to which was referred H.B. No. 2743, H.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO WASTEWATER,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to:

(1) Require each county to develop and maintain a wastewater management plan;

(2) Authorize the Director of Health to exempt a county from creating a wastewater management plan if the county has an existing wastewater management plan that substantially meets certain requirements;

(3) Require the counties to identify specific priority areas in which the county sewer system or other centralized treatment system will be expanded or constructed to reduce or eliminate cesspools before January 1, 2050, and provide for the designation of these areas as sewer improvement districts;

(4) Authorize each county to assess a monthly cesspool pollution fee beginning on July 1, 2025, on real properties containing a cesspool;

(5) Authorize the counties to use cesspool pollution fee revenues for certain activities that eliminate, reduce, or mitigate the impacts of cesspools, including the expansion of county sewer systems and the issuance of grants and low-interest loans to property owners; and

(6) Provide appropriations.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Land and Natural Resources; University of Hawaiʻi Sea Grant College Program; University of Hawaiʻi Water Resources Research Center; one member of the Hawaiʻi County Council; Hawaiʻi State Association of Counties; Surfrider Foundation, Hawaiʻi Region; The Nature Conservancy; Hawaiʻi Reef and Ocean Coalition; Indivisible Hawaii; Ocean Preservation Society; Keiko Conservation; WAI: Wastewater Alternatives & Innovations; Public Access to SunScreens Coalition; Maui Chamber of Commerce; and eight individuals. Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of Health; Department of Public Works of the County of Kauaʻi; one member of the Hawaiʻi County Council; Hawaiʻi Association of REALTORS; and Tax Foundation of Hawaii.

Your Committee has amended this measure by changing the number of full-time equivalent positions to unspecified numbers.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Finance that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2743, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2743, H.D. 2.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Finance,

____________________________

KYLE T. YAMASHITA, Chair