THE SENATE	S.B. NO.	1456
THIRTY-THIRD LEGISLATURE, 2025
STATE OF HAWAII

A BILL FOR AN ACT

RELATING TO RESTORATION OF BEACH LANDS.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

SECTION 1. The legislature finds that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the world's leading authority on climate science, in its Assessment Report 6 (2021) stated that it has high confidence that global sea level is committed to rise for centuries to millennia, regardless of whether humans slow carbon emissions into the atmosphere.

The legislature also finds that the state climate change mitigation and adaptation commission, created by Act 32, Session Laws of Hawaii 2017, stated in its 2022 report to the legislature that Hawaii is projected to likely experience between 3.9 and 5.9 feet of sea level rise by the year 2100. The legislature finds that sea level rise poses a serious and imminent threat to Hawaii's coastal communities and residents and to Hawaii's natural resources, primarily beaches and coastal ecosystems. The legislature recognizes that the State has an affirmative duty to preserve beaches as a public trust resource for the people of Hawaii, and that beaches are both culturally important and provide natural resilience to sea level rise and associated coastal flooding.

The purpose of this Act is to amend the definition of beach restoration to expand the types of activities the State recognizes as restorative and beneficial to beach lands in response to increasing threat of sea level rise and beach loss.

SECTION 2. Section 171-151, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by amending the definition of "beach restoration" to read as follows:

""Beach restoration" means [the placement of sand, with or without stabilizing structures, on an eroded beach from an outside source such as offshore sand deposits, streams, channels or harbor mouths, or an upland sand quarry.] an activity undertaken to:

(1) Maintain and improve beaches and dune systems through management of sand and native dune vegetation;

(2) Place sand on an eroded beach from an approved outside or adjacent source, with or without stabilizing structures; or

(3) Remove abandoned remnant materials from beaches and dunes that pose a risk to public health and coastal ecosystems."

SECTION 3. Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 4. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

INTRODUCED BY:	_____________________________
	BY REQUEST

Report Title:

Restoration of Beach Lands

Description:

Amends the definition of beach restoration to include activities undertaken to maintain and improve eroded beaches and degraded dune systems through the management of sand and native vegetation, placement of sand, and activities undertaken to remove abandoned and remnant materials that pose a risk to public and ecosystem health.

The summary description of legislation appearing on this page is for informational purposes only and is not legislation or evidence of legislative intent.