Directs DOH to utilize bioremediation as a priority method in dealing with water pollution.

A BILL FOR AN ACT

SECTION 1. The legislature finds that there are certain areas designated by the department of health, implementing an Environmental Protection Agency program, as water quality limited segments. These designated water quality limited segments are areas where the water quality is impaired and are usually found near river or stream mouths. Included in this category are Pearl harbor, Honolulu harbor, Keehi lagoon, and the Ala Wai basin.

A technology called bioremediation may help to clean up these water quality limited segments. Bioremediation utilizes the presence of biological agents, from plants to microorganisms, to consume toxic compounds or other water pollutants in impaired water. One example of bioremediation is the use of micro-bacteria in sewage treatment plants to consume and filter out pathogenic agents in the effluent. Another more visible example of bioremediation is the use of akulikuli plants placed on floating platforms in the Ala Wai canal to draw nitrogen, phophorus, and algae from the polluted canal waters.

The purpose of this Act is to direct the department of health to utilize bioremediation as a priority method of reducing pollution in water quality limited segments.

SECTION 2. Section 342E-1, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by adding a new definition to be appropriately inserted and to read as follows:

""Bioremediation" means the use of biological agents, including but not limited to microorganisms, bacteria, invertebrates, and plants, in hydrologic environments to remove or mitigate the presence of pollutants."

SECTION 3. Chapter 342E, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by adding a new section to be appropriately designated and to read as follows:

"§342E- Bioremediation. The department shall include, as a priority in its best management practices and programs, the use of bioremediation methods for preventing and mitigating point and nonpoint source pollution in state waters."

SECTION 4. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 5. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.