STAND. COM. REP. NO. 803-24

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2024

RE: H.B. No. 1691

H.D. 1

Honorable Scott K. Saiki

Speaker, House of Representatives

Thirty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2024

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Finance, to which was referred H.B. No. 1691, H.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE ENVIRONMENT,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to require newly installed or modified individual wastewater systems that are near the shoreline, or likely to pollute groundwater, to include denitrification capacity.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Land and Natural Resources; one member of the Kauaʻi County Council; one member of the Hawaiʻi County Council; Hawaiʻi Reef and Ocean Coalition; Friends of Hanauma Bay; Big Island Reef Keepers Hui; Kauhakō ʻOhana Association; Hawaii Marine Education and Research Center; Terraformation; Ocean Preservation Society; Keiko Conservation; WAI: Wastewater Alternatives & Innovations; and numerous individuals. Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of Health; University of Hawaiʻi Sea Grant College Program; and University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Water Resources Research Center.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Finance that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1691, H.D. 1, and recommends that it pass Third Reading.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Finance,

____________________________

KYLE T. YAMASHITA, Chair