HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES	H.C.R. NO.	350
TWENTY-FOURTH LEGISLATURE, 2008		H.D. 1
STATE OF HAWAII

HOUSE CONCURRENT

RESOLUTION

REQUESTING THE Department of Transportation to reassess its decision to require an environmental assessment for work being done by The Gas Company to extend a utility gas line under Moanalua Road for Kaiser Permanente and Moanalua Medical Center.

     WHEREAS, the Legislature recognizes that the quality of humanity's environment is critical to humanity's well being, as stated in Chapter 343, Hawaii Revised Statutes; and

     WHEREAS, state laws that address the preparation of environmental impact statements were enacted to provide for appropriate consideration of environmental concerns in decision-making, along with economic and technical considerations; and

     WHEREAS, generally, an environmental assessment is required for actions that propose the use of state or county lands or the use of state or county funds, with limited exceptions; and

     WHEREAS, section 343-6(7), Hawaii Revised Statutes, requires the Environmental Council to adopt rules that provide procedures to establish exemptions from the preparation of an environmental assessment for specific types of actions that will likely have minimal or no significant effects on the environment; and

     WHEREAS, Kaiser Permanente's new expansion of its Moanalua Medical Center facility is scheduled to officially open on April 17, 2008; and

     WHEREAS, to meet The Joint Commission's accreditation requirements, the Moanalua Medical Center is required, among other things, to provide a reliable emergency power system for critical parts of the facility if electricity is interrupted; and

     WHEREAS, to connect Moanalua Medical Center to the primary fuel source for its emergency generators and steam boilers, the Center must install a six-inch diameter, 1,600 feet long, synthetic natural gas utility line that will cross the Center's property, abut state-owned land along Moanalua Road, and pass under a section of Moanalua Road; and

     WHEREAS, in March 2008, the Department of Transportation communicated to Kaiser Permanente that The Gas Company's extension of the utility gas line will require an environmental assessment because the installation of the section of line that passes underneath Moanalua Road comes into contact with state property; and

     WHEREAS, the Department of Transportation, in requiring environmental assessments for other recent projects, has relied upon the Hawaii's Supreme Court's decisions in Kahana Sunset Owners Association v. County of Maui, 86 Hawaii 66 (1997) and Sierra Club v. Office of Planning, State of Hawaii, 109 Hawaii 411 (2006), which require an environmental assessment for any project that "touches a public roadway" or any "access improvement, easement, drainage, waterline, etc."; and

     WHEREAS, a careful reading of these cases would suggest that only large or intrusive projects would require an environmental assessment; for instance, the Kahana case addressed the installation of a 36 inch diameter drain pipe under a public roadway that would provide drainage for a new water system serving a subdivision of 300 homes; and

     WHEREAS, because these two Hawaii Supreme Court opinions do not address the minimal or no significant effects on the environment that would result from installing a section of utility gas line under Moanalua Road to connect the Moanalua Medical Center to its emergency power supply, they cannot be relied upon as a basis to require that an environmental assessment be conducted for the gas company's extension of the utility gas line; and

WHEREAS, an environmental assessment for the Moanalua Medical Center utility gas line extension project cannot be completed in time for the opening of the Moanalua Medical Center expansion facility on April 17, 2008; now, therefore,

     BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-fourth Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2008, the Senate concurring, that the Department of Transportation is requested to reassess its decision to require an environmental assessment for work being done to extend a utility gas line under Moanalua Road for Kaiser Permanente and Moanalua Medical Center, recognizing that the utility gas line extension requires minimal intrusion into state or county lands and does not significantly affect the environment; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the Governor, Director of Transportation, Attorney General, Director of Health, Director of the Office of Environmental Quality Control, Chairperson of the Environmental Council, and the Chief Executive Officer of the Moanalua Medical Center.

Report Title: 

Environmental Assessments; Exemptions