STAND. COM. REP. NO 444

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 893

       S.D. 1

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2015

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committee on Water and Land, to which was referred S.B. No. 893 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO WATER AND SEWER DISTRIBUTION SYSTEMS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to appropriate funds to the Pacific-Asia Institute for Resilience and Sustainability for research on water and sewer distribution systems on each island and a pilot study for advanced monitoring of water systems.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from Enterprise Honolulu, Pacific-Asia Institute for Resilience and Sustainability, and two individuals.

Your Committee finds that the United States Environmental Protection Agency has identified Hawaii as the focus for improving how funding is used to support water systems and infrastructure.  There is approximately $100,000,000 in unused funds from the United States Environmental Protection Agency's drinking water state revolving fund.  The fund is used to make grants and low interest loans for county water improvement projects that have had difficulty obtaining necessary permits from the state Department of Health.

Your Committee further finds that the water and sewer distribution systems in our State are important for any future economic growth. Furthermore, as the United States Environmental Protection Agency identified, there is a need to appropriately evaluate and improve water systems and infrastructure.  This measure will assist in using available funding resources in an efficient and fiscally responsible manner.

     Your Committee requests the Pacific-Asia Institute for Resilience and Sustainability to provide more information about its presence in Hawaii as this measure moves through the legislative process, including information on its ability to accomplish their research and pilot study locally.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by inserting an effective date of July 1, 2050, to encourage further discussion.

     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. 893, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 893, 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,

____________________________

LAURA H. THIELEN, Chair