STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1212

                                   Honolulu, Hawaii
                                                     , 1999

                                   RE:  S.C.R. No. 190
                                        




Honorable Norman Mizuguchi
President of the Senate
Twentieth State Legislature
Regular Session of 1999
State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Water, Land, and Hawaiian Affairs, to
which was referred S.C.R. No. 190 entitled:

     "SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION EXPRESSING SUPPORT BY THE
     LEGISLATURE FOR THE COASTAL EROSION MANAGEMENT PLAN OF THE
     DEPARTMENT OF LAND AND NATURAL RESOURCES,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this measure is to provide legislative
support for the Department of Land and Natural Resources' Coastal
Erosion Management Plan (COEMAP).

     The measure also requests that the Department of Land and
Natural Resources be provided with sufficient administrative
support and resources to effectively facilitate implementation of
COEMAP, including the following activities:

     (1)  Continue to develop COEMAP;

     (2)  Educate the public about beach erosion control;

     (3)  Advise the appropriate county agencies about beach
          erosion control and coordinate erosion activities with
          the counties; and

     (4)  Continue to conduct research, along with the University
          of Hawaii, in coastal erosion management, beach
          restoration, collecting data on erosion hazards,

 
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          developing plans to improve degraded coastal beaches,
          and identifying sand sources for beach restoration.

     Testimony in support of the measure was received from the
Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR), the Department
of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism's Office of
Planning, and Hawaii's Thousand Friends.

     Your Committee finds that coastal erosion in Hawaii has
reached alarming proportions, with many shorelines losing an
excess of a foot per year.  In the past seventy years, almost one
fourth of Oahu's natural sandy beaches have been lost or narrowed
due to shoreline hardening, and similar losses have occurred on
Maui and Kauai.

     Given the current trends of rising global sea levels,
increased coastal development and continual human impacts to
beaches, coastal erosion is expected to continue to be an
environmental, societal, cultural, and economic concern in the
foreseeable future.

     Your Committee also finds that there are a number of
alternatives to manage erosion, such as greater shoreline
setbacks, purchase by the State of coastal lands, prohibiting
coastal developments within known erosion hazard zones, restoring
beaches, and controlling erosion by adaptation or strategic
redevelopment, or sand nourishment.  Hawaii needs to find ways to
preserve the beaches and protect public access to the shorelines,
as well as protecting property from erosion, flooding, and wave
damage.

     To this end, the DLNR's Coastal Lands Program has developed
the COEMAP in collaboration with the University of Hawaii Coastal
Geology Group.  To ensure that changing environmental needs and
conditions are addressed, COEMAP is constantly being revised to
provide a selection of beach management options and erosion
management alternatives.  As a part of this updating process, the
Coastal Lands Program continuously solicits public input for
COEMAP and goes out into communities to educate the public about
beach erosion.

     Your Committee believes that COEMAP should be adopted by all
coastal zone management program agencies and authorities of the
counties for beaches under their jurisdiction, and by the State
for beaches under its jurisdiction.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your
Committee on Water, Land, and Hawaiian Affairs that is attached
to this report, your Committee concurs with the intent and

 
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purpose of S.C.R. No. 190, and recommends that it be referred to
the Committee on Ways and Means.

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



                                   ______________________________
                                   COLLEEN HANABUSA, Chair

 
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