STAND. COM. REP. NO. 434

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 1111

       S.D. 1

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2015

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committees on Energy and Environment and Health, to which was referred S.B. No. 1111 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO WATER INFRASTRUCTURE,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to authorize the Department of Health to transfer federal capitalization grant funds between the water pollution control revolving fund and the drinking water treatment revolving loan fund, in accordance with title 40 Code of Federal Regulations section 35.3530(c).

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Health and Board of Water Supply of the City and County of Honolulu.

     Your Committees find that there is a need to replace aging drinking water and wastewater system infrastructure in the State, the delay of which could pose a short-term and long-term health hazard for consumers.  The drinking water treatment revolving loan fund and the water pollution control revolving fund have not been administered in a way that manages yearly capitalization grants received from the United States Environmental Protection Agency to the maximum extent allowed under the Safe Drinking Water Act.  This has prevented the construction of health-protective infrastructure projects in Hawaii.  Implementation of this measure will ensure the efficient disbursement of annual federal capitalization grant monies, benefiting public health and the environment.

     Your Committees have amended this measure by making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Energy and Environment and Health that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1111, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1111, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

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

____________________________ JOSH GREEN, Chair

____________________________ MIKE GABBARD, Chair