THE SENATE	S.R. NO.	39
THIRTY-THIRD LEGISLATURE, 2025
STATE OF HAWAII

SENATE RESOLUTION

URGING THE DIRECTOR OF HEALTH to require operators of waste combustion facilities to implement continuous monitoring and sampling technologies THAT have been tested and verified by the United States Environmental Protection Agency AND continuously monitor AND sample, and report the emissions of contaminants.

WHEREAS, the Covanta Honolulu Resource Recovery Venture (H‑POWER), a waste combustion facility located in Campbell Industrial Park on Oahu, is among the State's largest sources of industrial air pollution, impacting public health and the climate; and

WHEREAS, H-POWER monitors only four air pollutants on a continuous basis, while other pollutants, if tested for at all, are tested only once per year under optimal operating conditions; and

WHEREAS, advances in technology have enabled more effective methods to continuously monitor for many toxic and otherwise harmful chemicals emitted by waste combustion facilities; and

WHEREAS, the United States Environmental Protection Agency has tested and verified the data from more advanced continuous monitors between 2001 and 2007; and

WHEREAS, Reworld, the operator of H-POWER, has been using continuous monitors at some of their incinerators in other States, including continuous monitoring and sampling for hydrochloric acid at certain incinerators in New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania; long-term sampling for dioxins and furans at an incinerator in Ontario; and monitoring or sampling of mercury, ammonia, and particulate matter at several other incinerators; and

WHEREAS, under Oregon state law, Reworld is required to continuously monitor for nine different toxic metals and continuously sample for dioxins, furans, and polychlorinated biphenyls; and

WHEREAS, continuous monitors are not used, or required, in the State; and

WHEREAS, the continuous monitoring or sampling of emissions provides more accurate data than annual stack testing; and

WHEREAS, when annual stack testing data was compared to the continuous monitoring of hydrochloric acid emissions at the nation's largest waste incinerator operated by Reworld in Chester, Pennsylvania, it was found that the actual emissions determined by continuous monitoring were sixty-two percent higher than that shown by annual stack testing, which is the method used by Reworld at H-POWER; and

WHEREAS, dioxins and furans are the most toxic man-made chemicals known to science. According to studies of incinerators in Europe, it was observed that continuous sampling for dioxins at incinerators found the actual emissions to be thirty-two to fifty-two times greater than those reported in the United States, where testing is typically performed on one burner at each incinerator per year on a rotating basis; and

WHEREAS, a recent study concluded that the failure to deploy continuous sampling technology in the United States results in underestimating dioxin emissions by 460 to 1,290 times; and

WHEREAS, Kona wind conditions blow waste combustion emissions toward population centers on an average of about one day per week, allowing these harmful chemicals to be released into nearby communities; and

WHEREAS, wherever smokestack emissions occur, released chemicals return to the earth with the rain, and when they are blown out to sea, chemicals concentrate in the seafood that is then consumed; and

WHEREAS, the continuous monitoring of emissions from incinerators is critical in determining community exposure to health hazards from toxic emissions; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate of the Thirty-third Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2025, that the Director of Health is urged to require operators of waste combustion facilities to implement continuous monitoring and sampling technologies that have been tested and verified by the United States Environmental Protection Agency and continuously monitor and sample, and report the emissions of contaminants; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Resolution be transmitted to  the Governor, Director of Health, Mayor of each county, and Chairperson of each County Council.

OFFERED BY:

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Report Title:

DOH; Waste Combustion Facility Operators; Toxic Air Emissions; Continuous Monitoring