Report Title:

Appropriation of funds for the Commission on Water Resource Management

Description:

Appropriates funds to the Commission on Water Resource Management to complete water management tasks.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.B. NO.

1433

TWENTY-THIRD LEGISLATURE, 2005

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 


 

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

making an appropriation to the commission on water resource management.

 

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

SECTION 1. The legislature finds that in Hawaii, freshwater is vital to all life and culture in our islands. Yet, the agency mandated with managing Hawaii's water, the commission on water resource management, lacks the funding and staff to adequately protect Hawaii's most precious resource. Resources and staff continue to be cut from this critical agency, jeopardizing its ability to fulfill its public trust and duty to protect and manage freshwater for present and future generations.

The legislature further finds that nearly two decades ago, pursuant to the public trust mandate of article XI, section 7, of the Hawaii State Constitution, the legislature enacted the State Water Code, chapter 174C, Hawaii Revised Statutes, requiring the commission to investigate over three hundred seventy streams and one hundred seventeen aquifers and comprehensively plan and manage the water resources and uses for this state. But today, the commission has been unable to complete even the most basic assessments of Hawaii's streams and water supplies, such as scientifically based instream flow standards and reliable estimates of groundwater sustainable yield. The Hawaii water plan, the key planning tool mandated by the code, was never completed and remains an outdated, rote inventory. As a result, state and county officials are relegated to making decisions and issuing permits without the facts, context, and vision necessary to appropriately balance present demands, let alone plan for the future. Today, lawsuit after lawsuit brought by members of the public such as cultural practitioners, farmers, and conservationists highlight the same problem: the failure of the commission to fulfill its public trust mandate under the constitution and code.

While the legislature tasked the commission with protecting and managing Hawaii's life-giving water resources and conducting long-term planning, it recognizes that these tasks cannot be completed without adequate funding and staff. All of Hawaii's people, present and future, deserve the best scientific understanding of Hawaii's water resources necessary to make sound protection and allocation decisions.

The purpose of this Act is to appropriate funds to the commission on water resource management for data collection, monitoring, planning, and water management needs, as mandated by chapter 174C, particularly the Hawaii water plan, part III of the State Water Code.

SECTION 2. There is appropriated out of the general revenues of the State of Hawaii the sum of $ or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2005-2006 for data collection, monitoring, planning, and water management needs, as mandated by chapter 174C, Hawaii Revised Statutes.

The sum appropriated shall be expended by the department of land and natural resources for the purposes of this Act.

SECTION 3. Moneys allocated for purposes of this Act shall not reduce existing funding for the commission on water resource management.

SECTION 4. This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2005.

INTRODUCED BY:

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