STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1437

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    H.B. No. 1325

       H.D. 1

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2015

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred H.B. No. 1325, H.D. 1, entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO STORMWATER MANAGEMENT,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to encourage the protection and prudent management of water resources in the State by authorizing the counties to charge user fees to create and maintain stormwater management systems or infrastructure.

 

     Your Committee received written comments in support of this measure from the Hawaii Farm Bureau, Hawaii Green Growth, The Nature Conservancy, the Surfrider Foundation Oahu Chapter, and five individuals.  The Department of Labor and Industrial Relations and the Tax Foundation of Hawaii submitted written comments on the measure.

 

     Your Committee finds that encouraging investment in infrastructure to capture, retain, and make beneficial use of stormwater rather than allow it to become runoff, will benefit the State in a variety of ways.  The demand for potable water is expected to increase in the coming decades because of factors such as population growth and related new development.  Climate change may also compromise some sources of fresh water in the State and exacerbate the increased demand for limited supplies of potable water. 

 

Your Committee further finds that the beneficial reuse of stormwater helps preserve the State's limited natural water resources and reduces polluted runoff that contaminates inland waterways and near-shore ocean waters.  Authorizing the counties to charge user fees to create and maintain stormwater management systems or infrastructure will encourage the protection and prudent management of the State's water resources.

 

     Your Committee has amended this measure by changing the effective date to make the measure effective upon its approval.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Ways and Means that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1325, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1325, H.D. 1, S.D. 1.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Ways and Means,

 

 

 

________________________________

JILL N. TOKUDA, Chair