STAND. COM. REP. NO. 155

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 803

       S.D. 1

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2013

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committee on Water and Land, to which was referred S.B. No. 803 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO WATER,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to establish a one-year irrigation water conservation best management practices pilot program, under which the Department of Accounting and General Services, Department of Transportation, and Department of Land and Natural Resources shall implement irrigation water conservation best management practices, as established by the Landscape Industry Council of Hawaii, to improve the efficiency of all existing and new landscape irrigation installations through low cost, practical measures.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Land and Natural Resources, Department of Transportation, Department of Accounting and General Services, Board of Water Supply of the City and County of Honolulu, Landscape Industry Association, Irrigation Hawaii Limited, Aloha Arborist Association, Landscape Industry Council of Hawaii, and one individual.

     The landscape irrigation conservation best management practices established by the Landscape Industry Council of Hawaii were developed in close consultation with landscape professionals across the State and are recognized nationally as industry standards.

     According to testimony, it is estimated that an average family household uses fifty percent of its total water consumption for outdoor purposes.  Of that fifty percent, the Environmental Protection Agency estimates an average of fifty percent of outdoor water use is for irrigation.

     Your Committee finds that through the proper installation, maintenance, and operation of irrigation systems using best management practices, precious groundwater supplies, including forested watersheds, can be preserved for future generations.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

     (1)  Extending the pilot program from one to two years;

     (2)  Changing the reporting deadline to the Legislature from twenty days prior to the convening of the 2015 Regular Session to twenty days prior to the convening of the 2016 Regular Session to address the testimony of the Department of Accounting and General Services that the earlier due date would necessitate more funding; and

     (3)  Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Water and Land that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 803, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 803, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Water and Land,

____________________________

MALAMA SOLOMON, Chair