STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2969

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    H.B. No. 2656

       H.D. 2

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Shan S. Tsutsui

President of the Senate

Twenty-Sixth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2012

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committees on Health and Energy and Environment, to which was referred H.B. No. 2656, H.D. 2, entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO AIR POLLUTION CONTROL,"

 

beg leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to require all crematoriums of human remains operating within the State to be subject to air pollution control permit requirements; provided that owners or operators of crematoriums constructed before March 20, 1972, and operating within the State without a permit shall submit permit applications to the Department of Health no later than December 31, 2015.

 

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Health; Hawaiian Memorial Life Plan, Ltd.; Hawaii Funeral and Cemetery Association; Sierra Club of Hawaii; and twenty individuals.  Your Committees also received a petition with 140 signatures in support of this measure.  Your Committees received testimony in opposition to this measure from Leeward Funeral Home; Hosoi Garden Mortuary, Inc.; and Oahu Cemetery Association.

 

     Your Committees find that residents of the neighborhoods in which unfiltered crematoriums exist are incidentally exposed to particulate matter, soot, chemicals, and other forms of pollution as a result of the close proximity of the crematoriums.  Requiring a permit will allow the Department of Health to better monitor and control the emissions of all crematoriums, thereby improving the State's air quality and public health.  Your Committees further find that the initial exemption was instituted as a courtesy, but that forty years have since elapsed.  Consequently, your Committees find that requiring all crematoriums to comply with modern air regulations and technology is of critical importance.

 

     Your Committees have amended this measure by moving up the date by which owners or operators of crematoriums constructed before March 20, 1972, and operating within the State without a permit must submit permit applications to the Department of Health no later than December 31, 2013, rather than December 31, 2015, as the health and well-being of those exposed to the crematorium's unfiltered smoke is of critical concern.

 

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Health and Energy and Environment that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2656, H.D. 2, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2656, H.D. 2, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Health and Energy and Environment,

 

____________________________

MIKE GABBARD, Chair

 

____________________________

JOSH GREEN, M.D., Chair