HCR162

WHEREAS, the counties are generally responsible for the management and disposal of solid waste under the oversight and regulation of the Department of Health;

WHEREAS, under this governmental arrangement, the City and County of Honolulu operates two main disposal facilities: the H-Power waste-to-energy facility, which combusts municipal solid waste for the generation of electricity, and the Waimanalo Gulch Landfill, which serves as the disposal site for excess municipal solid waste and H-Power ash and residue; and

WHEREAS, according to the City and County of Honolulu's Solid Waste Integrated Management Plan, dated November 2004, the ash produced at H-Power after combustion of the solid waste is substantial, approximately ninety-three thousand tons annually; and

WHEREAS, at present, the City and County of Honolulu must dispose the ash at the Waimanalo Gulch Landfill; and

WHEREAS, the ash comprises approximately twenty per cent of the total 445,555 tons of solid waste disposed there, according to the Solid Waste Integrated Management Plan; and

WHEREAS, the City and County of Honolulu recognizes the need to divert the ash from the landfill to conserve space and to develop a process to convert ash to reusable material at the H-Power site; and

WHEREAS, this conversion may be problematic because of the possible need for a modification of the H-Power solid waste management facility permit from the Department of Health; and

WHEREAS, section 342H-4, Hawaii Revised Statutes, provides for the review and issuance of a permit modification application; and

WHEREAS, this section provides for the automatic approval of a permit modification application if the Director of Health does not act within one hundred eighty days of receipt of the application; and

WHEREAS, the one hundred eighty-day period still may be too long, and the expense of applying for the permit modification may be unjustifiable to the City and County of Honolulu or a prospective vendor since this effort would simply be seeking to perform a test; and

WHEREAS, these barriers may prevent the City and County of Honolulu from fully exploring potentially beneficial ash conversion methods; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-fourth Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2007, the Senate concurring, that the Director of Health is requested to either:

(1) Consider, if legally permissible, waiving the H-Power permit modification requirement for the conduct of an ash conversion test at the H-Power site; or

(2) Suggest an alternative method to conduct a test that would not require a permit modification; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that, if the Director cannot do either of the above, the Director is requested to:

(1) Expedite the review of any application to modify the H-Power permit to allow the conduct of a on-site test for the conversion of H-Power ash into reusable material; and

(2) Make the decision on such a permit modification application before the expiration of the one hundred eighty-day deadline of section 342H-4(d), Hawaii Revised Statutes;

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Legislature intends that this Concurrent Resolution apply only to the testing of an ash conversion process at the H-Power facility and not the permanent operation of the process if testing is successful; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to Director of Health and the Director of Environmental Services for the City and County of Honolulu.

	OFFERED BY:	_____________________________

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES	H.C.R. NO.	162
TWENTY-FOURTH LEGISLATURE, 2007
STATE OF HAWAII