STAND. COM. REP. NO 216

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 1225

       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 Government Operations, to which was referred S.B. No. 1225 entitled:

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

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to require the Department of Accounting and General Services to:

     (1)  Conduct a feasibility study on the use of water scalping technology in state facilities; and

     (2)  Create a water scalping pilot project to implement water scalping technology in new and existing state facilities.

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Land and Natural Resources; Mele Associates, Inc.; and one individual.  Your Committees received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Department of Accounting and General Services.  Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Department of Health.

     Your Committees find that as an island state, Hawaii has limited access to natural fresh water supplies.  The increase in development, population growth, and climate change will threaten fresh water access, and innovative water conservation options need to be explored.  Water scalping is a decentralized method of water treatment and conservation that involves the extraction of valuable, usable water from a sewerage network.  By treating this extracted water to achieve varying degrees of water safety and quality, otherwise unused and wasted water is able to be reclaimed and put to beneficial uses.  The implementation of this measure will reduce the State's reliance on conventional water supplies and further the State's goal of sustainability.

     Your Committees have amended this measure by:

     (1)  Inserting an effective date of July 1, 2050, to encourage further discussion; and

     (2)  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 Government Operations that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1225, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1225, 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 Government Operations,

____________________________ DONOVAN M. DELA CRUZ, Chair

____________________________ MIKE GABBARD, Chair