STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2389

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 3338

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2024

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committees on Water and Land and Agriculture and Environment, to which was referred S.B. No. 3338 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO WATER,"

 

beg leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

 

     (1)  Establish within the Department of Land and Natural Resources a policy lead and coordinator for Red Hill Water Alliance Initiative initiatives;

 

     (2)  Create the Red Hill Remediation Special Fund; and

 

     (3)  Appropriate funds.

 

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Land and Natural Resources, Department of Health, Honolulu Board of Water Supply, University of Hawaiʻi System, Sierra Club of Hawaiʻi, Democratic Party of Hawaiʻi, Kūpuna for the Moʻopuna, Environmental Caucus of the Democratic Party of Hawaiʻi, Free Access Coalition, and twenty-four individuals.

 

     Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Department of Budget and Finance and five individuals.

 

     Your Committees find that the United States Navy's Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility consists of twenty steel-lined underground storage tanks that were built from 1940 to 1943.  On November 20, 2021, about ninety-three thousand individuals served by the Navy's potable water system for Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam were directly affected when the Navy's Red Hill shaft was contaminated by the release of up to nineteen thousand gallons of fuel, including JP-5 jet fuel, stored at the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility.  Over six thousand individuals sought medical attention, and one thousand were forced to leave their homes due to the contamination.  Your Committees further find that on May 9, 2023, officials from the State and City and County of Honolulu signed a unified statement on Red Hill, recognizing the stewardship responsibility to ensure that there is clean water on Oahu for future generations.  The Red Hill Water Alliance Initiative (WAI), a working group, met regularly in 2023 since the signing of the unified statement.  The Red Hill WAI posed questions, conducted research, listened to subject-matter experts, and formulated recommended policies.  This measure will create a special fund, which will enable the WAI to fund necessary efforts to remediate the contamination resulting from the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility.

 

     Your Committees have amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Clarifying that the Department of Land and Natural Resources shall be the State's policy lead on Red Hill WAI initiatives;

 

     (2)  Adding language that requires the cost of the remediation of the aquifer be borne by the United States Navy;

 

     (3)  Inserting an effective date of July 1, 2050, to encourage further discussion; and

 

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

 

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Water and Land and Agriculture and Environment that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 3338, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 3338, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committees on Ways and Means and Judiciary.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Water and Land and Agriculture and Environment,

 

________________________________

MIKE GABBARD, Chair

 

________________________________

LORRAINE R. INOUYE, Chair