STAND. COM. REP. NO. 3538

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.C.R. No. 76

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 Health and Human Services and Agriculture and Environment, to which was referred S.C.R. No. 76 entitled:

"SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION REQUESTING THE DIRECTOR OF HEALTH AND THE CHIEF ENERGY OFFICER TO CONTINUOUSLY MONITOR AIR POLLUTANTS EMITTED BY WASTE INCINERATION FACILITIES,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to request the Director of Health and the Chief Energy Officer to continuously monitor air pollutants emitted by waste incineration facilities.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Energy Justice Network, Environment Caucus of the Democratic Party of Hawaiʻi, CARES, and two individuals.

Your Committees received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Covanta Honolulu Resource Recovery Venture, LLC.

Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Department of Health and Hawaii State Energy Office.

Your Committees find that of the twenty-two known pollutants that waste incineration facilities emit, only four are monitored continuously. Further, as emissions may vary based on what materials are being incinerated, the measurements of certain emissions that are taken only once per year may not accurately reflect the pollutants being emitted at other times of the year, which is critical with respect to certain dioxin emissions that are restricted by the Environmental Protection Agency due to their toxicity. This measure would request the Department of Health, in collaboration with the Hawaii State Energy Office, to conduct monitoring of air pollutants emitted by waste incineration facilities. Your Committees further find that this measure's proposed request would require additional staff, time, and effort, and that no funds are being allocated to the Department of Health or Hawaii State Energy Office to fulfill these requests.

Your Committees note that H.C.R. No. 153 (2024) was recently passed out of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Energy and Environmental Protection and requests the Department of Health to conduct a feasibility study on the implementation of continuous monitoring and sampling technologies in waste combustion facilities and municipal solid waste landfills. Your Committees find that the language in H.C.R. No. 153 is preferable because it does not request the Department of Health or the Hawaii State Energy Office to actually conduct continuous monitoring of air pollutants, but rather to conduct a feasibility study on the implementation of continuous monitoring of air pollutants.

Accordingly, your Committees have amended this measure by:

(1) Deleting its contents and inserting the contents of H.C.R. No. 153, which requests the Department of Health to conduct a feasibility study on the implementation of continuous monitoring and sampling technologies in waste combustion facilities and municipal solid waste landfills;

(2) Inserting language to request the Department of Health to seek fees from users of waste facilities to fund the requested development of the emissions data disclosure website;

(3) Amending its title to reflect its amended purpose; and

(4) 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 Health and Human Services and Agriculture and Environment that are attached to this report, your Committees concur with the intent and purpose of S.C.R. No. 76, as amended herein, and recommend its adoption in the form attached hereto as S.C.R. No. 76, S.D. 1.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Health and Human Services and Agriculture and Environment,

________________________________ MIKE GABBARD, Chair

________________________________ JOY A. SAN BUENAVENTURA, Chair