STAND. COM. REP. NO. 558

                                 Honolulu, Hawaii
                                                   , 1999

                                 RE: H.B. No. 368
                                     




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. 368 entitled: 

     "A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE STATE WATER CODE,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this bill, as referred to your Committee, is
to provide the Board of Agriculture with comparable authority
over irrigation water as the county agencies exercise over water
for municipal purposes.

     Your Committee finds that under the State's water code the
Board of Agriculture's authority over irrigation water should be
comparable to the county water agencies' authority over water for
municipal purposes.

     This bill delegates to the Board of Agriculture the
authority to allocate the use of water for agricultural
irrigation purposes subject to the limits of water supply
allocated to the Board of Agriculture in its role as irrigation
water purveyors.

     Testimonies in support of this bill were received from the
Department of Agriculture, the Department of Land and Natural
Resources, and the Hawaii Farm Bureau Federation.

     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.

 
 
                                 STAND. COM. REP. NO. 558
                                 Page 2

 
368 and recommends that it pass Second Reading and be referred to
the Committee on Water and Land Use.

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



                                   ______________________________
                                   FELIPE P. ABINSAY, JR., Chair