STAND. COM. REP. NO. 124

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2025

RE: H.B. No. 915

H.D. 1

Honorable Nadine K. Nakamura

Speaker, House of Representatives

Thirty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2025

State of Hawaii

Madame:

Your Committee on Water & Land, to which was referred H.B. No. 915 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO WATER USE,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to:

(1) Authorize the Board of Agriculture to investigate and survey the availability of non-potable water;

(2) Authorize the Commission on Water Resource Management to require the use of dual line water supply systems in new residential and mixed-used developments located in designated water management areas; and

(3) Include residential and mixed-use developments in irrigation projects under certain conditions.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Land and Natural Resources and one individual. Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Department of Agriculture. Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of Health.

Your Committee finds that authorizing the Commission on Water Resource Management to require dual line water supply systems in new residential and mixed-use developments as a condition for issuing permits in designated water management areas will better assist the State in its water conservation goals while ensuring the health and safety of its people.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Requiring the designation of a recycled water manager as part of the permitting process for irrigation of a single-family residential home;

(2) Changing the effective date to July 1, 3000, to encourage further discussion; and

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

Your Committee notes the concern raised by the Department of Agriculture in testimony that by including residential and mixed-use developments in irrigation projects, this measure would require the Department's irrigation program, which provides irrigation water to commercial-scale farms, to provide services for which it was never intended and use resources it does not currently have. As such, your Committee respectfully requests your Committee on Agriculture & Food systems, should it deliberate on this measure, to consider whether the Department of Agriculture is the appropriate department to operate and maintain residential and mixed-use developments in irrigation projects or whether, as the Department suggests, county departments of water supply or public works may be more suitable.

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. 915, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 915, H.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Agriculture & Food Systems.

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

____________________________

MARK J. HASHEM, Chair