STAND. COM. REP. NO. 583

                                   Honolulu, Hawaii
                                                     , 1999

                                   RE:  S.B. No. 368
                                        S.D. 1




Honorable Norman Mizuguchi
President of the Senate
Twentieth State Legislature
Regular Session of 1999
State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Labor and Environment, to which was
referred S.B. No. 368 entitled: 

     "A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO RESIDENTIAL PROPERTY
     OCCUPANCY,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this measure is to prohibit the Director of
Health from issuing a permit for a medical waste incinerator that
is located within one mile of any residential dwelling.

     Testimony in support of this measure was received from
Hawaii's Thousand Friends, Waimanalo Citizens for a Healthy
Future, Kawakami Delicatessen, Stonecraft, Akamai Builders, Boat
City, and six individuals.  Oral testimony in support of the
measure was also presented by a member of the Kailua Neighborhood
Board.

     The Department of Health (DOH) testified in support of the
intent of this measure with reservations.

     Your Committee finds that a one-mile buffer zone for
residents from any medical waste incinerator or medical waste
sterilizer will severely restrict or eliminate viable locations
for these facilities.  The only areas left are probably remote
areas on neighbor islands.  

     Your Committee also finds that the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) has stringent emission requirements for

 
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new medical waste incinerators but exempts incinerators that burn
only pathological and chemotherapy waste.  To the best knowledge
of your Committee, the EPA requirements have no stipulations on
the siting of medical waste incinerators and its proximity to
residents or communities. 

     Your Committee has amended this measure by changing the
requirement from one mile to five hundred feet as recommended by
DOH.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your
Committee on Labor and Environment that is attached to this
report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose
of S.B. No. 368, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass
Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 368,
S.D. 1.

                                   Respectfully submitted on
                                   behalf of the members of the
                                   Committee on Labor and
                                   Environment,



                                   ______________________________
                                   BOB NAKATA, Chair

 
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