STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2523

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 2245

       S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2016

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Health, to which was referred S.B. No. 2245, S.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO BEACHES,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to exclude certain locally sourced beach sand from the definition of "water pollutant" as used in chapter 342D, Hawaii Revised Statutes, to allow the use of the sand for erosion mitigation on Hawaii's beaches.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Land and Natural Resources and Hawaii Shore and Beach Preservation Association.  Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Department of Health.  Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Office of Hawaiian Affairs.

     Your Committee finds that Hawaii is losing its beaches at an alarming rate due to chronic shoreline retreat and shoreline armoring and that beach erosion is expected to accelerate in the future.  Efforts to mitigate beach erosion have been frustrated because sand is currently defined as a water pollutant, despite the fact that sand is a natural occurrence along beaches, stream mouths, and channels.  Naturally sourced beach sand should not be considered a pollutant and should be permissible for use when appropriate to help conserve the State's beaches.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Health that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2245, S.D. 1, and recommends that it pass Third Reading.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Health,

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ROSALYN H. BAKER, Chair