HR258

WHEREAS, Hawaii consumes the most water per capita in the United States, eighteen per cent higher than the national average; and

WHEREAS, Hawaii's population is projected to increase by three hundred thousand residents by 2030 and the resulting increased demand for water requires us to care for and manage our watersheds, uphold water quality standards, and support adequate infrastructure for residential, commercial, and agricultural use; and

WHEREAS, three of the four counties reuse wastewater at a rate of less than five per cent, one county at the rate of less than fifteen per cent, and the State at a rate less than twenty-five per cent; and

WHEREAS, the residents of Oahu are facing a $1,000,000,000 bill to repair an aging sewer system that must carry a large amount of otherwise reusable gray water and that has all too often failed, with potentially disastrous consequences for the health, safety, and economic welfare of residents; and

WHEREAS, the Hawaii 2050 Sustainability Plan calls for, among many other things, measures to encourage greater production and use of recycled water and continual review of water-conserving technologies for possible incorporation in county building codes; and

WHEREAS, the counties have jurisdiction over residential wastewater treatment in areas served by county sewer systems;

WHEREAS, section 342D-70, Hawaii Revised Statutes, authorizes the counties to implement a gray water recycling program within their jurisdictions in which gray water, defined as any water from the domestic plumbing system of a residence except toilets, is used for the purpose of irrigating lawns and gardens; and

WHEREAS, the counties have not sought approval from the Department of Health to institute gray water recycling programs as required by section 342D-70, Hawaii Revised Statutes, and in adopting national plumbing standards have deleted gray water reuse provisions; and

WHEREAS, gray water can replace fresh water for many uses, saving money and increasing the effective water supply; and

WHEREAS, gray water use greatly extends the useful life and capacity of wastewater systems, and for municipal treatment systems, decreased wastewater flow means higher treatment effectiveness and lower operation and capital costs; and

WHEREAS, gray water is purified to a high degree in the upper, most biologically active region of the soil, thereby protecting the quality of natural surface and ground waters; and

WHEREAS, gray water reuse can help reduce the threat to groundwater in areas where on-site wastewater treatment systems cause nitrate contamination; and

WHEREAS, a gray water reuse system can be a partial or complete substitute for a very costly, over-engineered system at sites with slow soil percolation or other problems; and

WHEREAS, a gray water reuse system can decrease strain on critical blackwater treatment facilities for sites with slow soil percolation, fast percolation, or other problems; and

WHEREAS, there is a long history of gray water reuse in the United States, with not a single documented case of gray water-transmitted illness, even though gray water systems have only recently been the subject of regulatory control;

WHEREAS, numerous other states facing water shortages have adopted gray water reuse standards that have reduced potable water use, Arizona being a particularly safe, effective, and successful example; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-fourth Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2008, that the counties are requested to use the authority granted to them under section 342D-70, Hawaii Revised Statutes, and adopt and implement standards for the reuse of residential gray water for subsurface landscape irrigation; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the counties are requested to adopt standards that:

(1) Use a tiered approach to gray water system regulation based upon the amount of gray water produced by the system involved, with specific requirements increasing from simple to more complex as the size of the system increases;

(2) Are performance-based, requiring achievement of specific goals, such as ecologically and biologically safe treatment of gray water, with explicit designs being options, rather than mandatory specifications; and

(3) Are realistic about the extremely low health risk presented by gray water reuse; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Resolution be transmitted to the Director of Health and the Mayor and the Chairperson of the Council of each county.

	OFFERED BY:	_____________________________

Report Title:

Counties; Adoption of Standards for Reuse of Gray Water

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES	H.R. NO.	258
TWENTY-FOURTH LEGISLATURE, 2008
STATE OF HAWAII