STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2547

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 3170

       S.D. 1

Honorable Colleen Hanabusa

President of the Senate

Twenty-Fourth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2008

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committees on Energy and Environment and Education, to which was referred S.B. No. 3170 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO PESTICIDES,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this measure is to establish a pesticide-free buffer zone around elementary schools and require the Department of Agriculture to notify the schools and the Board of Education within seventy-two hours of the application of the pesticide.

     Testimony in support of the measure was submitted by the Sierra Club Hawai‘i Chapter, the Hawaii State Teachers Association, and thirty-eight individuals.

     Testimony in opposition of the measure was submitted by the Department of Agriculture, Maui Pineapple Company, the Hawaii Farm Bureau Federation, Hawaii Pest Control Association, Alexander & Baldwin, Inc., Hawaii Agriculture Research Center, and three individuals

     Comments on the measure were also submitted by the Department of Education, and five individuals.

     Your Committees find that pesticide usage, particularly in close proximity to children and schools, can pose a dangerous health hazard in our communities.  Recently, there have been reported incidents of students and school staff becoming ill subsequent to nearby pesticide spraying.  Currently, there is no restriction on the use of pesticides near schools and your Committees believe that safeguards are necessary to protect the health of our keiki and our community as a whole.  As received by your Committees, this measure would have created a pesticide-free buffer zone within one thousand and five hundred feet of an elementary school.  Although protection is necessary, a less onerous approach should be explored to permit lawful pesticide usage, particularly for our agricultural community, while still ensuring the health and safety at all of our schools.

     Accordingly, your Committees have amended this measure by replacing its contents with provisions that:

     (1)  Establish a Working Group on Pesticide Use in Proximity to Schools, comprised of members of the Advisory Committee on Pesticides and representatives from the Department of Education; and

     (2)  Specify the duties of the Working Group on Pesticide Use in Proximity to Schools, including reporting requirements.

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Energy and Environment and Education that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 3170, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 3170, S.D. 1, and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Energy and Environment and Education,

____________________________ NORMAN SAKAMOTO, Chair

____________________________ RON MENOR, Chair