Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2002

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Agriculture and Water, Land, Energy and Environment, to which was referred S.B. No. 2245 entitled:

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to appropriate funds for preparation of the state agricultural water use and development plan by the department of agriculture, with the assistance of the commission on water resource management.

Testimony supporting this measure was received from the Department of Agriculture, Department of Land and Natural Resources, City and County of Honolulu Board of Water Supply, Del Monte, Hawaii Leeward Planning Conference, Pineapple Growers Association of Hawaii, Hawaii Farm Bureau Federation, Hawaii Agriculture Research Center, and Big Island Farm Bureau.

Your Committees find that the success of Hawaii's agriculture industry hinges on proper water resource management. In 1998, the Legislature amended the State water code to require the Department of Agriculture to develop a comprehensive agricultural water use and development plan, including a master irrigation inventory plan. The federal government has recently approved an appropriation of $300,000 for the plan that is contingent upon the appropriation of matching state funds. This measure provides the funds necessary to prepare the plan and ensure the availability of water for Hawaii's growing agriculture industry.

Your Committees have amended this measure by recognizing that the federal government has appropriated federal funding that requires the state matching funds appropriated in this measure.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Agriculture and Water, Land, Energy and Environment that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2245, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2245, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.