STAND. COM. REP. NO. 398

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 689

       S.D. 1

Honorable Shan S. Tsutsui

President of the Senate

Twenty-Sixth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2011

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committees on Water, Land, and Housing and Energy and Environment, to which was referred S.B. No. 689 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO LAKE WILSON,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

     (1)  Establish a pilot project within the Department of Land and Natural Resources to demonstrate the effectiveness of marine phytoremediation using plants that are native to Hawaii to remove pollutants and improve water clarity in Lake Wilson;

     (2)  Require the Department of Land and Natural Resources to report to the Legislature no later than twenty days prior to the convening of the Regular Session of 2012, on the viability, safety, and effectiveness of the technology on a demonstration scale in the Lake Wilson environment and recommendations, including the costs associated with the recommendations, for continuation or expansion of the project; and

     (3)  Appropriate an unspecified sum to the Department of Land and Natural Resources for the 2011-2012 fiscal year to conduct the pilot project.

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Land and Natural Resources, the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, and one individual.  Your Committees received testimony in opposition to this measure from one individual.

     Your Committees find that Lake Wilson, Hawaii's largest reservoir, has the potential to provide water needed for the North Shore of Oahu's agricultural expansion but that the condition and quality of the water today limits the amount of crops produced.  This measure proposes an innovative way to remove pollutants and improve water clarity in Lake Wilson.

     Your Committees note the concerns raised by the Department of Land and Natural Resources regarding the Department's lack of capacity and expertise to conduct the pilot project.

     Your Committees have amended this measure accordingly, by:

     (1)  Requiring the Department of Land and Natural Services to procure the phytoremediation services for the pilot project pursuant to chapter 103D, Hawaii Revised Statutes;

     (2)  Extending the Department's reporting deadline to the Legislature no later than twenty days prior to the convening of the Regular Session of 2013, rather than 2012; and

     (3)  Extending the appropriation for the pilot project through the second year of the 2011-2013 fiscal biennium.

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Water, Land, and Housing and Energy and Environment that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 689, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 689, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Water, Land, and Housing and Energy and Environment,

____________________________ MIKE GABBARD, Chair

____________________________ DONOVAN M. DELA CRUZ, Chair