HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES	H.C.R. NO.	99
TWENTY-FIFTH LEGISLATURE, 2009
STATE OF HAWAII

HOUSE CONCURRENT

RESOLUTION

requesting the city and county of honolulu to adopt ordinances prohibiting the discharge of backwash from new residential swimming pools into storm drains and requiring discharge into a sanitary sewer.

     WHEREAS, clean water is essential to the people of Hawaii, nourishing our agricultural crops, providing countless domestic uses, and making industry possible; and

     WHEREAS, Article XI, section 7, of the Hawaii Constitution provides that the "State has an obligation to protect, control, and regulate the use of Hawaii's water resources for the benefit of its people"; and

     WHEREAS, swimming pool backwash, which results from the cleaning or flushing out of a pool filter, is filled with contaminants that may include trash, debris, bacteria, and other pollutants; and

     WHEREAS, public swimming pools are required by the Department of Health to discharge pool backwash into sanitary sewers, to be treated and properly disposed of; and

     WHEREAS, the City and County of Honolulu, Department of Environmental Services, currently allows the practice of discharging pool backwash that does not contain any chlorine residue from single-family residential swimming pools into storm drains if sanitary sewers are not available or household cesspools are located in critical wastewater disposal areas; and

     WHEREAS, storm drains are not connected to sanitary sewer systems and treatment plants, allowing unfiltered and untreated water filled with contaminants to flow to our streams, lakes, and ocean; and

     WHEREAS, polluted runoff can harm wildlife and habitats, make fish and shellfish unsafe to eat, and otherwise poison our precious water resources; and

     WHEREAS, like public swimming pools, pool backwash from private residential swimming pools should also be required to be discharged into sanitary sewer systems to ensure its treatment prior to its entry into our water systems; now, therefore,

     BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-fifth Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2009, the Senate concurring, that the city and county of Honolulu is requested to adopt an ordinance prohibiting the discharge of pool backwash from all new single-family residential swimming pools into storm drains and requiring discharge into sanitary sewers; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the ordinance may allow alternatives of discharging pool backwash into a holding tank or settling pond, or by infiltration to the soil, when appropriate and when discharge into the sanitary sewer is not a viable option; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a certified copy of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the Mayor of the City and County of Honolulu.

OFFERED BY:

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Report Title: 

Swimming Pool Backwash; Discharge to Sanitary Sewers