STAND. COM. REP. NO. 12

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 684

       S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Ninth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2017

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Agriculture and Environment, to which was referred S.B. No. 684 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO IRRIGATION,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to provide additional funding for improvements to the Waiahole irrigation system.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Agriculture; Agribusiness Development Corporation; Hawaii Farmers Union United; Hawai‘i Farm Bureau; Hawaii Agriculture Research Center; Hawaii Cattlemen's Council, Inc.; and two individuals.

     Your Committee finds that a reliable irrigation system is the lifeline of Hawaii's agricultural industry.  To ensure that Hawaii's crops receive a steady and dependable supply of water, sufficient funding is needed to maintain and improve Hawaii's irrigation systems.  Your Committee further finds that the Waiahole irrigation system was constructed in 1915 to irrigate thousands of acres of sugarcane.  The system collects groundwater from the windward side of Oahu and transports the water via tunnels to the leeward side of Oahu, where it is conveyed through ditches and siphons by gravity flow to supply vital irrigation water to lands between Waipio and Kunia; however, the system is currently in need of efficiency improvements.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

     (1)  Inserting a general obligation bond issuance and appropriation amount of $8,000,000; and

     (2)  Making a technical, nonsubstantive amendment for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Agriculture and Environment that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 684, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 684, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Agriculture and Environment,

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MIKE GABBARD, Chair