HB2230

SECTION 1. The purpose of this Act is to address the issue of irrigation systems. More specifically, this Act:

(1) Expressly authorizes the board of agriculture to acquire irrigation systems by negotiated purchase, exchange, or gift;

(2) Requires agricultural lands served by the irrigation systems acquired by the board of agriculture to be used by the landowners for agriculture or leased to others for agricultural use; and

(3) Provides regulations for gifts of irrigation systems from private landowners to the State.

SECTION 2. Chapter 167, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by adding two new sections to be appropriately designated and to read as follows:

"§167- Condition on landowner served by irrigation system acquired by board of agriculture. The board of agriculture shall require each owner of agricultural land served with water from an irrigation system acquired by the board pursuant to section 167-5(1) to use the land for agriculture or lease the land to another person for at least thirty five years for agricultural use.

"Agricultural land" means land classified as agricultural districts under chapter 205.

§167- Irrigation systems; gifts by private landowners. Any irrigation system donated to the State by a private landowner shall:

(1) Include land that is contiguous to the irrigation system that may be purchased by the State; provided that the land:

(A) Is discounted for any cost of repair and initial operation and general liability to the State; and

(B) Is sufficient in size to adequately manage any possible irrigation system overflow or flooding; and

(2) Be adjacent to lands that are under thirty five to fifty year leases."

SECTION 3. Section 167-5, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:

"[[]§167-5[]] Powers. In addition to any other powers granted to the board of agriculture for the purpose of carrying out all of its functions and duties, the board shall have the following powers for the purposes of this chapter:

(1) To acquire by eminent domain, negotiated purchase, exchange, or gift, water and water sources either above or underground, watershed, reservoir sites, rights-of-way over lands and property for paths, trails, roads, and landing sites, ditches, tunnels, flumes, reservoirs, and pipelines necessary or proper for the construction and maintenance of water facilities for conveying, distributing, and transmitting water for irrigation and domestic use and for such other purposes as may properly fall within the scope of its activities in creating, managing, controlling, operating, and maintaining irrigation water facilities, any of which purposes shall be held to be for a public use and purpose;

(2) To make and execute contracts and other instruments necessary or convenient to the exercise of the powers of the board, including, without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing, contracts and other instruments for the purchase or sale of water and for the purchase or lease of water facilities for irrigation of the area, including but not limited to the production of agricultural products and the land on which the facilities are situated, and for securing to the owners and occupiers of land already using water in a project a priority right to so much water from those of their sources and facilities [~~which~~] that are taken over for the project as is required for the purposes or needs of the land, whether agricultural or nonagricultural in nature, as such purposes or needs exist at the inception of the project or are then contemplated in the immediate future;

(3) To make and, from time to time, amend [~~and~~] or repeal bylaws and rules, not inconsistent with this chapter, which upon compliance with chapter 91 shall have the force and effect of law, to carry into effect the powers and purposes of the board;

(4) To make surveys for the purposes of determining the engineering and economic feasibility of each project;

(5) To conduct or have prepared comprehensive studies of the crops, livestock, and poultry [~~which~~] that may be profitably grown or produced within each project and the probable market for such crops, livestock, and poultry;

(6) To conduct feasibility studies of the economic potential of the area;

(7) To determine the probable costs and value of providing water for irrigation in any proposed project;

(8) To investigate and make surveys of water resources, including the possibility and feasibility of inducing rain by artificial or other means;

(9) To define and redefine the boundaries of projects and to consolidate or separate projects, existing or proposed pursuant to this chapter, provided that in the event the redefinition of the boundaries or the consolidation or separation previously effected increased the total amount required to be derived from acreage assessments upon lands within the existing project or projects by more than five per cent or will require an increase in the tolls charged for water supplied to the lands or will reduce the amount of water normally available for distribution to the lands, then the redefinition, consolidation, or separation may be accomplished only after notice has been published and a public hearing held as required for the formation of a project upon the initiative of the board. At the hearing, right to protest and the procedure relative to protest shall be the same as specified in section 167-17 concerning the formation of projects, and the proposed redefinition of boundaries, consolidation, or separation of projects shall not be accomplished if protests, [~~such as~~] that would be sufficient to prevent the action if it were the formation of a project, are filed by owners and lessees of land within the existing projects or projects affected thereby.

The board is empowered, upon petition of land occupiers as provided by section 167-13, or upon petition of the Hawaiian homes commission or upon its own initiative, to prepare detailed plans for the acquisition or construction of facilities for irrigation or for economic development which in its opinion are economically feasible, to prepare estimates of the probable cost of each, and to prepare estimates of the water tolls and acreage assessments required for the cost of operation and the amortization of the investment of each project, so that the project shall be self-supporting."

SECTION 4. This Act does not affect rights and duties that matured, penalties that were incurred, and proceedings that were begun, before its effective date.

SECTION 5. Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 6. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

INTRODUCED BY:	_____________________________

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES	H.B. NO.	2230
TWENTY-FOURTH LEGISLATURE, 2008
STATE OF HAWAII