STAND. COM. REP. NO. 940

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    H.B. No. 1087

       H.D. 1

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2015

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committee on Energy and Environment, to which was referred H.B. No. 1087, H.D. 1, entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

 

     (1)  Amend the amount of the environmental response, energy, and food security tax collections to be deposited into the environmental response revolving fund;

 

     (2)  Require the Director of Health to establish a task force to assess the condition of all field-constructed underground storage tanks that are older than seventy years and take steps to ensure that these tanks do not present an unacceptable risk to the environment and freshwater supplies; and

 

     (3)  Require the Director of Health to prepare and submit a report of the task force's findings and recommendations to the Legislature.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Health, Office of Environmental Quality Control, Board of Water Supply of the City and County of Honolulu, Nature Conservancy, Hawaii Green Growth, and three individuals.  Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Tax Foundation of Hawaii.

 

     Your Committee finds throughout the State, there are twenty-six field-constructed underground storage tanks that are older than seventy years and a leak in any of these tanks poses a great threat to the State's freshwater supplies and the environment.  Your Committee further finds that the balance in the environmental response revolving fund, which funds the Department of Health's emergency response operations, is gradually decreasing.  Implementation of this measure will ensure that the environmental response revolving fund is capable of supporting critical environmental response initiatives and mitigating future unexpected environmental emergencies that arise.

 

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Deleting the requirement that the Director of Health establish a task force;

 

     (2)  Amending section 1 to reflect the amended purpose of this measure; and

 

     (3)  Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

 

     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 H.B. No. 1087, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1087, H.D. 1, 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,

 

 

 

________________________________

MIKE GABBARD, Chair