STAND. COM. REP. NO. 350

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 1386

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2023

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Water and Land, to which was referred S.B. No. 1386 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO DECLARATION OF WATER SHORTAGE AND EMERGENCY,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to clarify the conditions, manner, and areas in which the Commission on Water Resource Management of the Department of Land and Natural Resources can declare water shortages and emergencies.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Land and Natural Resources. Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Honolulu Board of Water Supply.

Your Committee finds that existing state law does not contemplate the existence of a water shortage or emergency due to an immediate degradation of water quality. As the Red Hill crisis has revealed, such shortages and emergencies can happen in an instant. Your Committee finds that the Commission on Water Resource Management reviewed the law and supports the amendments in this measure to implement water shortage and emergency declarations to be able to react to crises in a swift and comprehensive manner. Therefore, this measure clarifies the conditions, manner, and areas in which the Commission on Water Resource Management of the Department of Land and Natural Resources can declare water shortages and emergencies.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Inserting an effective date of July 1, 2050, to encourage further discussion; and

(2) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Water and Land that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1386, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1386, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Judiciary.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Water and Land,

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LORRAINE R. INOUYE, Chair