STAND. COM. REP. NO. 13-26

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2026

RE: H.B. No. 1730

H.D. 1

Honorable Nadine K. Nakamura

Speaker, House of Representatives

Thirty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2026

State of Hawaii

Madame:

Your Committee on Energy & Environmental Protection, to which was referred H.B. No. 1730 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO WASTEWATER SYSTEMS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to:

(1) Establish a Wastewater Technical Advisory Group to assist the Department of Health in reviewing administrative rules and practices for cesspools and wastewater systems and proposing changes to make upgrades more affordable; and

(2) Appropriate funds for positions within a branch of the Department of Health and the hiring of a consultant to assist the Wastewater Technical Advisory Group.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Land and Natural Resources; Department of Hawaiian Home Lands; Office of Planning and Sustainable Development; University of Hawaiʻi Sea Grant College Program; University of Hawaiʻi Water Resources Research Center; Surfrider Foundation, Hawaiʻi Region; American Council of Engineering Companies of Hawaii; Public Access to SunScreens Coalition; Hawaiʻi Reef and Ocean Coalition; Hawaiʻi Ocean Legislative Task Force; The Nature Conservancy Hawaiʻi and Palmyra; WAI: Wastewater Alternatives & Innovations; Kingdom Pathways; WaiHome LLC; and five individuals. Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of Health.

Your Committee finds that although more than three thousand three hundred cesspools need to be upgraded per year to meet the 2050 cesspool upgrade, conversion, or connection mandate, fewer than four hundred fifty cesspools per year are being upgraded. Your Committee recognizes that high costs are contributing to this lack of progress. This measure ensures that the Department of Health has the capacity and support necessary to review administrative rules and practices and propose changes to make cesspool upgrade, conversion, and connection more affordable.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Changing the name of the Wastewater Technical Advisory Group to the Cesspool Conversion Implementation Working Group and amending the membership of the Working Group;

(2) Amending one of the positions to be established in the Department of Health;

(3) Changing the effective date to July 1, 3000, to encourage further discussion; and

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

Your Committee respectfully requests your Committee on Finance, should it deliberate on this measure, to consider an appropriation amount of $182,208 for the establishment of positions in the Department of Health.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Energy & Environmental Protection that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1730, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1730, H.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Finance.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Energy & Environmental Protection,

____________________________

NICOLE E. LOWEN, Chair