STAND. COM. REP. NO. 3806

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: H.B. No. 2743

H.D. 2

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2024

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred H.B. No. 2743, H.D. 2, S.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO WASTEWATER,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to reduce the number and environmental impact of cesspools in the State.

More specifically, this measure:

(1) Requires the University of Hawaii Water Resources Research Center and the University of Hawaii Sea Grant College Program to develop an overlay with the Hawaii Cesspool Prioritization Tool to identify specific priority areas in which the county sewer system or other centralized treatment system could most feasibly be expanded or constructed to reduce or eliminate cesspools before January 1, 2050;

(2) Authorizes the counties to designate sewer improvement districts;

(3) Beginning July 1, 2025, authorizes the counties to assess a cesspool pollution fee on real properties containing a cesspool;

(4) Authorizes each county to establish a county cesspool closure and mitigation special fund;

(5) Authorizes the counties to use cesspool pollution fee revenues or other revenues, including real property tax 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) Makes an appropriation.

Your Committee received written comments in support of this measure from the Department of Health; Department of Land and Natural Resources; Hawaii State Association of Counties; Hawaii County Council; Hawaii Reef and Ocean Coalition; Maui Chamber of Commerce; Oceanic Preservation Society; Public Access to Sunscreens Coalition; Surfrider Foundation, Hawaii Region; WAI: Wastewater Alternatives & Innovations; and eight individuals.

Your Committee received written comments on this measure from Hawai`i Association of REALTORS^® and the Tax Foundation of Hawaii.

Your Committee finds that Hawaii has approximately eighty-three thousand cesspools that discharge an estimated fifty million gallons of untreated sewage into the State's groundwater and surface waters every day. Your Committee also finds that, although the counties are responsible for constructing and maintaining wastewater systems, the State presently does not require the counties to develop wastewater management plans, nor are the counties required to identify neighborhoods that could be connected to existing and planned wastewater treatment facilities. Due to this lack of formal wastewater management planning, individual landowners, the counties, and the Department of Health currently do not know which cesspools are situated in areas that will eventually be connected with existing and proposed county wastewater facilities, and when those connections can be made.

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

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Ways and Means,

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DONOVAN M. DELA CRUZ, Chair