SB3224

SECTION 1. Chapter 167, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by adding a new part to be appropriately designated and to read as follows:

"PART . MOLOKAI IRRIGATION SYSTEM

§167-A Molokai irrigation system water users board; establishment; meetings. (a) There is established a Molokai irrigation system water users board, to be appointed by the governor under section 26-34. The Molokai board shall consist of six members, as follows:

(1) A homestead farmer user on Molokai;

(2) A non-homestead farmer user on Molokai;

(3) The nominee of the Molokai Farm Bureau;

(4) The nominee of Hikiola Cooperative, Inc.;

(5) The nominee Molokai-Lanai soil and water conservation district; and

(6) The nominee of the department of Hawaiian home lands.

The members of the Molokai board shall serve without compensation, but shall be entitled to reimbursement for necessary expenses while attending meetings and while in the discharge of their duties. For administrative purposes, and pursuant to section 26-35, the Molokai board shall be placed within the department of agriculture.

(b) The Molokai board shall meet with the department of agriculture at least six times each year. The meetings shall be held on Molokai, whenever possible.

§167-B Molokai board powers and duties. (a) The Molokai board shall have the following powers and duties:

(1) To acquire by eminent domain, 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 Molokai 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 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 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 Molokai 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 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 Molokai 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 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;

(10) The Molokai 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;

(11) Establish and certify the total amount of acreage assessments to be levied annually and collect the assessments within each project;

(12) Set and from time to time revise tolls that it shall charge for the water provided by its facilities, subject to the rate policies established hereunder;

(13) Establish priorities between the several lands included in a project according to the use to which the lands are put or other reasonable basis for classification;

(14) Govern the furnishing of water in the event of a shortage of supply and to correlate water tolls with these priorities;

(15) Charge and collect water tolls, fees, and other charges established in connection herewith;

(16) Sell, exchange, transfer, assign, or pledge any property, real or personal, or any interest therein, to any person, firm, corporation, or government, except as prohibited by the laws of the State;

(17) Hold, clear, and improve property;

(18) Borrow money for any of the purposes hereunder;

(19) Authorize the investment of any funds held in reserves, or any funds not required for immediate disbursement, in property or securities in which savings banks may legally invest funds subject to the Molokai board's control;

(20) Insure or provide for the insurance of the property or operations of the Molokai board against such risks as the Molokai board may deem advisable;

(21) Include in any construction contract executed in connection with a project, stipulations requiring that the contractor and any subcontractors comply with requirements as to minimum wages and maximum hours of labor, and comply with any conditions that the federal government may have attached to its financial aid of the project;

(22) Set, charge, and collect interest and a service charge on delinquent payments due on water tolls, acreage assessments, or other related accounts; provided that the rate of interest shall not exceed one per cent per month and the service charge shall not exceed amount to be determined by the Molokai board for each delinquent payment;

(23) Accept a security interest in real or personal property for a debt restructured under a payment plan for delinquent water tolls, acreage assessments, or other related irrigation project accounts subject to the rate of interest set forth in paragraph (22) and

(24) Foreclose upon or otherwise enforce the security interest accepted under paragraph (23) by any method provided for by law and to hold title to, maintain, use, manage, operate, sell, lease, or otherwise dispose of that personal or real property to recover the debt secured.

(b) The Molokai board shall also have the power to enter into any repayment or other contracts with the United States for the construction, operation, and maintenance of any projects as may be required or provided for by the federal reclamation laws, or acts amendatory thereof or supplementary thereto, or other federal laws, and further to borrow money or accept grants or assistance from the federal government, or any department, bureau, or agency thereof with respect to the engineering, construction, operation, and financing of any project hereunder. The Molokai board shall make every effort to obtain all federal aid possible for the purposes of this chapter.

(c) In making surveys, studies, and investigations, in planning and designing, and in constructing projects and facilities for irrigation, the Molokai board shall also have power to include therein surveys, studies, and investigations of, plans and designs for, and construction of facilities for flood control and the utilization of water for the production of hydroelectric power, where the same may be practicable in conjunction with the formation and operation of an irrigation project or projects.

§167-C Native Hawaiian water rights. (a) Provisions of this chapter shall not be construed to amend or modify rights or entitlements to water as provided for by the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act, 1920, as amended, and by chapters 168 and 174C, relating to the Molokai irrigation system.

(b) No provision of this chapter shall diminish or extinguish trust revenues derived from existing water licenses unless compensation is made.

(c) Traditional and customary rights of ahupua‘a tenants who are descendants of native Hawaiians who inhabited the Hawaiian Islands prior to 1778 shall not be abridged or denied by this chapter. Such traditional and customary rights shall include, but not be limited to, the cultivation or propagation of taro on one's own kuleana and the gathering of hihiwai, opae, o‘opu, limu, thatch, ti leaf, aho cord, and medicinal plants for subsistence, cultural, and religious purposes.

(d) The appurtenant water rights of kuleana and taro lands, along with those traditional and customary rights assured in this section, shall not be diminished or extinguished by a failure to apply for or to receive a permit under this chapter."

SECTION 2. Section 167-2, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by adding a new definition to be appropriately inserted and to read as follows:

""Molokai board" means the Molokai irrigation system water users board."

SECTION 3. Section 167-23, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is repealed.

["~~[§167-23]~~ Molokai irrigation system water users advisory board; establishment; meetings. (a) There is established a Molokai irrigation system water users advisory board, to be appointed by the governor under section 26-34. The advisory board shall consist of six members, as follows:

~~(1) A homestead farmer user on Molokai;~~

~~(2) A nonhomestead farmer user on Molokai;~~

~~(3) The designee (by name rather than office) of the Molokai Farm Bureau;~~

~~(4) The designee (by name rather than office) of Hikiola Cooperative, Inc.;~~

~~(5) The designee (by name rather than office) of the Molokai-Lanai soil and water conservation district; and~~

~~(6) The designee (by name rather than office) of the department of Hawaiian home lands.~~

The members of the advisory board shall serve without compensation, but shall be entitled to reimbursement for necessary expenses while attending meetings and while in the discharge of their duties. For administrative purposes, and pursuant to section 26-35, the advisory board shall be placed within the department of agriculture.

~~(b) The advisory board shall meet with the department of agriculture at least six times each year. The meetings shall be held on Molokai, whenever possible.~~

The advisory board's duties and responsibilities shall be to advise the department on matters of concern to the users of the system, to provide support for improvements to the irrigation facilities, to participate in the long-range planning of the system, and to act as liaison between the users and the department."]

SECTION 4. When codifying the new part added to chapter 167, Hawaii Revised Statutes, the revisor of statutes shall substitute appropriate section numbers for letters.

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:	_____________________________

THE SENATE	S.B. NO.	3224
TWENTY-FOURTH LEGISLATURE, 2008
STATE OF HAWAII