HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.B. NO.

1170

THIRTIETH LEGISLATURE, 2019

H.D. 1

STATE OF HAWAII

 

 

 

 

 

 

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

 

RELATING TO ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION.

 

 

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

 


     SECTION 1.  The legislature finds that pollution from cesspools is harming the public health in the State.  Currently, there are roughly eighty-eight thousand cesspools that are contaminating streams, oceans, ground water, drinking water, and marine areas around the State.  Additionally, lack of adequate sewer capacity has led to massive sewage discharges into the ocean following heavy rains and has prevented the development of new affordable housing in the urban core.

     The legislature further finds that new waste management solutions could greatly improve public health.  Technologies that are reaching a commercial scale for the first time include solutions for individual homes, as well as multi-unit dwellings, apartment buildings, and entire communities.  Self-contained, self-powered, and self-cleaning toilets can be used in homes that do not have the capacity to connect to the existing sewer infrastructure.  Large waste management systems can remove sewage from multi-unit dwellings and apartment buildings.  At the municipal scale, these technologies can effectively treat sewage from entire communities for a small fraction of the cost of existing technology now employed in Hawaii.  Employing these technologies can preserve local water quality and protect our environment.

     Act 132, Session Laws of Hawaii 2018, established the cesspool conversion working group and tasked it with developing a long-range, comprehensive plan for cesspool conversion statewide and with considering methods by which the department of health can ensure that cesspools are converted into more environmentally-responsible waste treatment systems.  The legislature believes that funding a pilot project that reviews available waste management technologies across different topographies in Hawaii will assist the working group and the department of health with the objectives of Act 132.

     The purpose of this Act is to fund a new waste management solution pilot project to demonstrate new toilet and sewage treatment technologies and to expedite traditional permitting and regulation for the demonstration projects.

     SECTION 2.  (a)  There is established a new waste management solution pilot project to be conducted by the cesspool conversion working group established by Act 132, Session Laws of Hawaii 2018.

     (b)  The pilot project shall:

     (1)  Review and demonstrate new toilet and sewage treatment technologies at different scales and in different locations across the State; and

     (2)  Examine and implement a range of technologies from individual toilets to significantly larger multi-unit systems, as well as examine options for community-scale solutions as appropriate.

     (c)  The department of health shall expedite demonstration projects conducted as part of the pilot project.

     SECTION 3.  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 2019-2020 and the same sum or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2020-2021 to the cesspool conversion working group for the purpose of implementing the new waste management solution pilot project.

     The sums appropriated shall be expended by the department of health for the purposes of this Act.

     SECTION 4.  The department of health shall submit a report on the status of the pilot project, including its findings and recommendations, and any proposed legislation, to the legislature no later than twenty days prior to the convening of each regular session in 2021 and 2022.

     SECTION 5.  This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2100, and shall be repealed on June 30, 2022.


 


 

Report Title:

Environmental Protection; Cesspool Working Group; Pilot Project

 

Description:

Establishes and funds a pilot project to demonstrate new toilet and sewage treatment technologies and to expedite traditional permitting and regulation for the demonstration projects.  (HB1170 HD1)

 

 

 

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