STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2384

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 2147

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2024

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Agriculture and Environment and Water and Land, to which was referred S.B. No. 2147 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO REUSE ZONES,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to promote the use of certain recycled wastewater throughout the State. Specifically, this measure:

(1) Requires any nonpotable water users or developers of real property within an unspecified number of miles of a wastewater treatment plant to use R-1 water for nonpotable water usage; and

(2) Appropriates an unspecified amount of funds to the Department of Land and Natural Resources:

(A) To enforce R-1 water usage requirements; and

(B) For the establishment of an unspecified number of full-time equivalent positions within the Commission on Water Resource Management.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Honolulu Board of Water Supply, Ulupono Initiative, and Agriculture and Food Security Committee of the Environmental Caucus of the Democratic Party of Hawaiʻi.

Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Department of Health and Department of Land and Natural Resources.

Your Committees find that water is a precious resource that needs to be preserved and conserved to ensure sustainability for future generations. Your Committees further find that increasing nonpotable water use is a viable solution to offset the demand on Hawaii's vital and finite water resources. Your Committees note that R-1 recycled water is disinfected and poses no impact to public health relative to other types of nonpotable irrigation supplies.

Your Committees also find that not all wastewater treatment plants treat wastewater to R-1 water standards. Your Committees further note that the Department of Health, rather than the Commission on Water Resource Management, has the authority to enforce laws relating to water pollution. According to multiple testimonies received by your Committees, the Legislature appropriated funding for fiscal year 2024-2025 for additional planning and study to better understand the potential expansion of recycled water reuse in the State through a statewide assessment to utilize reclaimed water for uses other than drinking water and potable water needs in all state and county facilities by December 31, 2045, and to conduct a study for water security. Your Committees believe that this study should be completed before the establishment of reuse zones and find that the results of the study will be available in two years.

Your Committees have amended this measure by:

(1) Requiring any nonpotable water users or developers of real property adjacent to or within reach of existing suitable infrastructure connected to a wastewater recycling facility that treats wastewater to R-1 water standards to use R-1 water for nonpotable water usage after January 1, 2026;

(2) Amending the definition of R-1 water to mean "recycled water that has been oxidized, filtered, and disinfected to meet the corresponding standards set in chapter 11‑62, Hawaii Administrative Rules";

(3) Moving the positions established to be within the Department of Health rather than the Commission on Water Resource Management;

(4) Deleting language that would have appropriated funds to the Department of Land and Natural Resources to enforce R-1 water usage requirements;

(5) Amending section 1 to reflect its amended purpose; and

(6) 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 Agriculture and Environment and Water and Land that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2147, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2147, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Agriculture and Environment and Water and Land,

________________________________ LORRAINE R. INOUYE, Chair

________________________________ MIKE GABBARD, Chair