Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2006

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Energy, Environment, and International Affairs and Water, Land, and Agriculture, to which was referred S.R. No. 97 entitled:

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to request the Department of Agriculture to establish an Agricultural Pesticide Disposal Assistance Program.

The Department of Agriculture, the Hawaii Farm Bureau, the Maui County Farm Bureau, the Hawaii Crop Improvement Association, the Hawaii Agriculture Research Center, the Hawaiian Alliance for Responsible Technology and Science, C & H Farms, and Hawaii Pest Control Association submitted testimony in support of this measure.

It is illegal to dispose of agricultural pesticides in sanitary landfills, but there are currently no options for disposal of these substances within the State. Your Committees find that a Pesticide Disposal Assistance Program would promote a safer, cleaner environment by reducing the amount of pesticides that, without such a program, could potentially contaminate the drinking water, waterways, and land across the State.

Your Committees have amended this measure by:

Your Committees considered the Hawaii Pest Control Association's testimony, and notes that the scope of the disposal program could be expanded to include the disposal of pesticide containers used by other pesticide users.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Energy, Environment, and International Affairs and Water, Land, and Agriculture that are attached to this report, your Committees concur with the intent and purpose of S.R. No. 97, as amended herein, and recommend its adoption in the form attached hereto as S.R. No. 97, S.D. 1.