HCR350 HD1 PROPOSED

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, one thousand six hundred 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 thirty-six inch diameter drain pipe under a public roadway that would provide drainage for a new water system serving a subdivision of three hundred 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 provide an environmental assessment exemption to The Gas Company for work being done to extend a utility gas line under Moanalua Road for Kaiser Permanente and Moanalua Medical Center, pursuant to Section 11-200-8(A)(3), Hawaii Administrative Rules; 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 the Department of Transportation is requested to submit a report to the Legislature no later than twenty days prior to the convening of the Regular Session of 2009, on the Department's plans to distinguish between significant and non-significant projects in a manner that resolves this issue with respect to future projects that could trigger the environmental impact statement process; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Department of Transportation is requested to submit a report to the Legislature no later than twenty days prior to the convening of the Regular Session of 2009 as to whether the Department currently has the necessary resources to monitor work required by the environmental impact statement process under chapter 343, Hawaii Revised Statutes; and

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

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