STAND. COM. REP. NO. 400

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 501

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2025

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Health and Human Services and Agriculture and Environment, to which was referred S.B. No. 501 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO CESSPOOLS,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to require the Department of Health, to the extent allowable under federal law, to prioritize the use of Water Pollution Control Revolving Fund moneys for projects by homeowners to upgrade cesspools to director-approved wastewater systems or connect homeowners' properties to sewerage systems, including projects for the installation of cluster systems or community package plants.

Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Department of Health and Hawaii Reef and Ocean Coalition.

Your Committees find that to mitigate the impacts of cesspools on public health and the environment, the Legislature passed laws that require all cesspools in the State to be upgraded or converted to a wastewater system approved by the Director of Health or connected to a sewerage system by 2050. Your Committees further find that homeowners living on properties with cesspools face expensive costs to comply with the cesspool upgrade mandate, including installation, maintenance, and long-term financing. This measure requires, to the extent allowable under federal law, the Department of Health to prioritize the use of moneys in the Water Pollution Control Revolving Fund, through which Hawaii administers the Clean Water State Revolving Fund Program, to finance projects that eliminate cesspools.

Your Committees have amended this measure by inserting an effective date of December 31, 2050, to encourage further discussion.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Health and Human Services and Agriculture and Environment that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 501, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 501, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Health and Human Services and Agriculture and Environment,

________________________________ MIKE GABBARD, Chair

________________________________ JOY A. SAN BUENAVENTURA, Chair