Bill Text: HI HCR97 | 2015 | Regular Session | Introduced

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

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Bill Title: Wastewater Disposal Review

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 4-0)

Status: (Passed) 2015-04-24 - Resolution adopted in final form. [HCR97 Detail]

Download: Hawaii-2015-HCR97-Introduced.html

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HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES	H.C.R. NO.	97
TWENTY-EIGHTH LEGISLATURE, 2015
STATE OF HAWAII

HOUSE CONCURRENT

RESOLUTION

 

 

REQUESTING that the department of health assure that any substantial land discharge of wastewater, occurring by injection well or other means, is IN ALL CASES, adequately reviewed and permitted.

 

 

 

     WHEREAS, section 401 of the federal Clean Water Act charges the Department of Health with responsibility for certifying that proposed discharges resulting from an activity will not violate applicable water quality standards; and

 

     WHEREAS, the Department of Health administers the underground injection control program to regulate the disposal of wastewater under chapter 11-23 of the Hawaii Administrative Rules; and

 

     WHEREAS, the Department of Health defines a "well" as a "bored, drilled or driven shaft, or a dug hole, whose depth is greater than its widest surface dimension"; and

 

     WHEREAS, current wastewater treatment plant methods of wastewater disposal are not limited to underground injection wells; and

 

     WHEREAS, in Hawaii, other methods for wastewater treatment plant disposal include settling ponds, land discharge, retention basins, treatment lagoons, and other means; and

 

     WHEREAS, wastewater treatment plants utilizing different discharge methods have resulted in plumes of unpermitted and unregulated wastewater discharge into the environment, for example, the treatment lagoons from the Kealakehe wastewater treatment plant; now, therefore,

 

     BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-eighth Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2015, the Senate concurring, that the Department of Health is requested to assure that any substantial land discharge of wastewater, occurring by injection well or other means, is in all cases, adequately reviewed and permitted; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Department of Health is requested to consider for the inclusion of other discharge methods for wastewater, other than by injection well, in the review and permit process; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Department of Health is requested to adopt rules, pursuant to chapter 91, Hawaii Revised Statutes, to include other discharge methods for wastewater in the review and permit process; and 

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the Director of Health and the Chief of the Environmental Management Division.

 

 

 

	OFFERED BY:	_____________________________

Report Title: 

Wastewater Disposal Review