STAND. COM. REP. NO.423

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2003

RE: S.B. No. 919

S.D. 1

 

 

Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2003

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Energy and Environment, to which was referred S.B. No. 919 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT MAKING AN APPROPRIATION FOR BIOREMEDIATION RESEARCH,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to appropriate funds for research and small-scale testing of biological treatment (bioremediation) on material dredged from the Ala Wai Canal and other waterways statewide.

The University of Hawaii, Pacific International Center for High Technology Research, Life of the Land, and one individual submitted testimony supporting this measure.

Your Committee finds that sediments dredged from the Ala Wai Canal contain a variety of contaminants, including halogenated hydrocarbons, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and metals. Hawaii currently lacks an environmentally sound, cost-effective method for treating these sediments. Shipment to the mainland for burial is expensive and ocean dumping pollutes our food chain and degrades the coastal resources that residents and visitors value. Bioremediation of the sediments can be a desirable and effective treatment alternative.

Your Committee has amended this measure by deleting the amount of the appropriation to permit further discussion by the Committee on Ways and Means.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Energy and Environment that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 919, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 919, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

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

____________________________

J. KALANI ENGLISH, Chair