Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2002

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Water, Land, Energy and Environment, to which was referred S.B. No. 2713 entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to establish a brownfields cleanup revolving loan fund for low-cost loans to public and private entities for the cleanup of contaminated sites.

Testimony in support of this measure was received from the Department of Health and the Office of Planning, Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism.

Your Committee finds that the State has applied for a United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) grant that would provide seed money to provide financing for the cleanup of brownfields sites to facilitate their redevelopment and reuse. Brownfield sites are defined by the EPA as "abandoned, idled, or underused industrial and commercial facilities where expansion or redevelopment is complicated by real or perceived environmental contamination." The Kakaako Waterfront Park and the Home Depot store are examples of sites that have been successfully redeveloped.

Your Committee further finds that interest in such redevelopment is hampered by the costs associated with cleanup and perceived liability for future cleanups. The EPA's Brownfields Economic Redevelopment Initiative, of which the cleanup revolving loan fund is one component, aims at addressing market barriers to the reuse of abandoned or contaminated sites.

Your Committee is supportive of this measure and has made technical, nonsubstantive amendments to reflect preferred drafting style.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Water, Land, Energy and Environment that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2713, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2713, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.