STAND. COM. REP. NO. 638

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2023

RE: H.B. No. 1282

H.D. 1

Honorable Scott K. Saiki

Speaker, House of Representatives

Thirty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2023

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Water & Land, to which was referred H.B. No. 1282 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE MAINTENANCE OF MANOA STREAM,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to appropriate funds for the Department of Land and Natural Resources, in conjunction with the City and County of Honolulu, to perform maintenance activities to benefit Manoa Stream.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from one member of the Honolulu City Council, Be Ready Manoa, and sixteen individuals. Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Department of Land and Natural Resources.

Your Committee finds that the City and County of Honolulu has not regularly performed periodic maintenance activities on Manoa Stream that are necessary to adequately address flood mitigation through vegetation management, debris removal, and streambed dredging at specific locations. The most recent extensive flooding event caused over $80,000,000 in damage to the University of Hawaii at Manoa campus, and in the aftermath, government entities committed to performing dredging activities of Manoa Stream twice per year at a specified location.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Removing the involvement of, and appropriation to, the Department of Land and Natural Resources for maintenance activities to benefit Manoa Stream;

(2) Placing the responsibility for the maintenance activities solely with the City and County of Honolulu and providing the City with the appropriation;

(3) Changing the effective date to June 30, 3000, to encourage further discussion; and

(4) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity, consistency, and style.

Your Committee respectfully requests your Committee on Finance, should it deliberate on this measure, to consider whether hazard mitigation grant funding from the federal government would be an appropriate funding source in the future.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Water & Land that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1282, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1282, H.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Finance.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Water & Land,

____________________________

LINDA ICHIYAMA, Chair