Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2005

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Energy, Environment, and International Affairs, to which was referred S.C.R. No. 140 entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to request that the Department of Health develop an environmental justice policy and, through a guidance document, apply provisions of this policy to analysis and review of projects subject to the environmental impact statement law.

Testimony in support of the measure was received from the Office of Hawaiian Affairs and Life of the Land. The Department of Health provided testimony that supported the intent of the measure and provided comments. The Office of Environmental Quality Control and the Environmental Center of the University of Hawaii provided comments.

Your Committee finds that the environmental impact statement program under chapter 343 of the Hawaii Revised Statutes is a comprehensive one that analyzes the impact of projects upon affected local communities, including socioeconomic and cultural impacts. However, your Committee also finds that many projects considered to have a negative effect upon the health and safety of neighboring residents, such as landfills and industrial facilities, have been approved and sited in neighborhoods with a high and disproportionate percentage of Native Hawaiian or other minority residents, or in low-income communities. Your Committee finds that the President's Council on Environmental Quality has already produced a federal guidance document on environmental justice. Your Committee thus finds that the Department of Health should create a document to guide state decision-makers in incorporating principles of environmental justice in the environmental review process. Your Committee finds that the Department of Health is the appropriate department to produce this guidance document because it can utilize the expertise of the entire department, including the Office of Environmental Quality Control.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Energy, Environment, and International Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee concurs with the intent and purpose of S.C.R. No. 140 and recommends that it be referred to the Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs.