STAND. COM. REP. NO. 320

                                 Honolulu, Hawaii
                                                   , 1999

                                 RE: H.B. No. 898
                                     H.D. 1




Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say
Speaker, House of Representatives
Twentieth State Legislature
Regular Session of 1999
State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Agriculture, to which was referred H.B.
No. 898 entitled: 

     "A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE ESTABLISHMENT OF AN
     AGRICULTURAL WATER SYSTEM FOR UPCOUNTRY MAUI,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this bill, as referred to your Committee on
Agriculture, is to establish a separate agricultural water supply
and delivery system under the Board of Agriculture for the farms
in the upcountry region on Maui.  

     Your Committee finds that the upcountry agricultural area is
primarily dependent on expensive domestic water from the lower
Kula system to irrigate their crops.  In spite of previous
moratoriums on new water services, subdivisions and new
construction continue to increase water demands in the Kula area.
The development of the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands
residential and agricultural subdivisions in Waiohuli and Keokea
will further decrease the available supply of agricultural water
to the existing farmers in the upcountry area.

     This bill grants to the Board of Agriculture the necessary
powers to administer and to construct water facilities to
adequately serve the quantity of agricultural water demand to the
upcountry Kula region.

     Testimonies in support of this measure were received from
the Board of Agriculture, the Mayor of the County of Maui, the

 
 
                                 STAND. COM. REP. NO. 320
                                 Page 2

 
Department of Water Supply of the County of Maui, the Maui County
Farm Bureau, the Central Maui Soil and Water Conservation
District, the Maui Farmers' Cooperative Exchange, and the Maui
Pineapple Company, Ltd.

     Your Committee has amended this bill by striking "account"
on line 12 on page 3 and replacing it with "revolving fund" and
by striking the first sentence of section 4 on page 3, lines 12
to 16.  It further amended this bill by replacing "these
accounts" which appears on page 3, section 4, with "the revolving
fund."
     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your
Committee on Agriculture that is attached to this report, your
Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No.
898, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second
Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 898, H.D. 1, and
be referred to the Committee on Finance.

                                   Respectfully submitted on
                                   behalf of the members of the
                                   Committee on Agriculture,



                                   ______________________________
                                   FELIPE P. ABINSAY, JR., Chair