STAND. COM. REP. NO. 365

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 1083

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2025

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Water and Land, to which was referred S.B. No. 1083 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO PORT INFRASTRUCTURE,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to appropriate funds to the Department of Land and Natural Resources to conduct maintenance dredging at certain state small boat harbors, boat launch ramp facilities, and other state boating facilities and waterways.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Land and Natural Resources; Ocean Tourism Coalition; Hawaiʻi Fishermen's Alliance for Conservation and Tradition, Inc.; Calypso Charters; Oahu Hawaiian Canoe Racing Association; and one individual.

Your Committee finds that maintenance dredging is critical to the upkeep of small boat harbors, channels, ramps, and other port infrastructure in the State. Your Committee further finds that the current process is disorganized and haphazard as the necessary steps, including appropriations and the issuance of permits, are not taken until dredging is imminent. This disorganized process occasionally contributes to worsened conditions at these facilities that may cause the shutdown of affected sites which the State's communities rely on for recreation and subsistence fishing. This measure will allocate resources to the Department of Land and Natural Resources to conduct maintenance dredging projects at state boating facilities across the State.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

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

(2) Making a technical, nonsubstantive amendment for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Water and Land that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1083, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1083, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

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

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LORRAINE R. INOUYE, Chair