STAND. COM. REP. NO. 166

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 1011

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2023

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Agriculture and Environment, to which was referred S.B. No. 1011 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO PESTICIDES,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

(1) Require monthly rather than annual reporting of restricted use pesticides;

(2) Amend the contents of reports to include specific geospatial data and information, site information, and increased detail on the amount of restricted use pesticides used; and

(3) Require the Department of Agriculture to develop an online reporting tool for restricted use pesticides.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Environmental Caucus of the Democratic Party of Hawai‘i, Pono Hawaii Initiative, Hawai‘i Alliance for Progressive Action, HULI PAC, Hawai‘i Reef Ocean Coalition, Pesticide Action Network, Hawai‘i SEED, CleanEarth4Kids.org, Hanai Hives, and sixty-three individuals. Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Department of Agriculture, Western Plant Health, CropLife America, and one individual. Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Hawaii Crop Improvement Association, Western Wood Preservers Institute, Hawai‘i Farm Bureau, and one individual.

Your Committee finds that pesticide exposure can cause significant harm to public health and the environment and that pesticides deemed by the State as Restricted Use Pesticides have an especially high potential to cause harm. Your Committee additionally finds that reporting for restricted use pesticides use data in Hawaii has only recently become available and that the quality of this reporting is so low and infrequent that it takes considerable effort for interested parties to make sense and use of the resulting data. Thus, this measure makes important updates to the quality and frequency required of restricted use pesticides reporting by the Department of Agriculture to aid in the ongoing effort to better understand the effects of these chemicals on the environment and public health.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Agriculture and Environment that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1011 and recommends that it pass Second Reading and be referred to your Committees on Commerce and Consumer Protection and Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Agriculture and Environment,

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MIKE GABBARD, Chair