STAND. COM. REP. NO. 584

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 513

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. 513 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO WATER,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to authorize the Department of Health to allow any county to implement a Gray Water Recycling Program that permits small farms of less than ten square acres in size the ability to use gray water for the purposes of irrigation.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Hawaiʻi Farmers Union United and Hawaiʻi Farm Bureau.

Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Department of Health.

Your Committees find that farmers are facing increasing pressures to produce critically important agricultural products in the State and that, often, the most pressing issue is water scarcity, which exacerbates challenges experienced by local farmers and producers. Your Committees further find that strict regulations governing the reuse of gray water, which includes wastewater from sinks, showers, and laundry, disproportionately affect small farms where farmers often find themselves limited in their ability to harness this valuable resource for irrigation. This measure authorizes the counties to allow small farms the ability to use gray water for irrigation purposes, thereby allowing smaller farms to maintain their operations efficiently and sustainably and to further promote food security and ecological health in the State.

Your Committees have amended this measure by inserting language to clarify that the use of gray water under a county's gray water recycling program for the purpose of irrigating farms of less than ten square acres is limited to farms that produce:

(1) Non-edible vegetation in areas with limited public access;

(2) Fodder, fiber, and seed crops not consumed by humans; or

(3) Timber and trees not bearing food crops.

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. 513, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 513, 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