Testify now on bills that impact our water future: Red Hill & stream bills

by Wayne Tanaka | Reading time: 2 minutes

Ola i ka wai, water is life! There are a handful of bills (good and bad) moving through the legislature that will have big impacts on our islands’ water future. Please submit testimony in support of the following Red Hill bills and in opposition to the water licensing bill, they both have hearings on Tuesday, late testimony is accepted. Explainers, sample testimonies and instructions on how to submit testimony provided below.

Red Hill Bills

HB2514, and HB2274 are being heard on Tuesday at 11 a.m. in the House Committees on Health, Human Services, & Homelessness and Energy & Environmental Protection. These bills would effectively prohibit the state from permitting the Red Hill Facility and similarly massive underground storage tank facilities that may threaten our precious public trust water sources.

HB2514: Prohibits the issuance of permits for any underground storage tank greater than 100,000 gallons.

HB2274: Similar to SB2172, which was passed out of the Senate Committee on Health and Senate Committee on Agriculture and the Environment, with much-needed amendments. This measure seeks to prohibit underground fuel storage tanks of greater than 100 gallons within a half mile of an aquifer. See below for sample testimony with critical amendments to ask for.

Sample testimony

For HB2514:

Dear Chair Yamane, Chair Lowen, Vice Chair Tam, Vice Chair Marten, and members of the House Health, Human Services, & Homelessness and Energy and Environmental Protection Committees,

I SUPPORT HB2514, which seeks to protect our islands' most precious resource from fuel contamination. Our water is precious and we all have a duty to protect our islands' source of life for present and future generations. We have already seen the devastating impacts that water contamination from leaky underground storage tanks may have on people and the environment, with additional effects likely to ripple across our island over the summer and into the foreseeable future. The legislature must do all that it can to remove the threat of something far worse happening to our water supply, both now and for future generations to come. Accordingly, I respectfully urge you to PASS HB2514.

Mahalo nui for the opportunity to testify,

[your name]

For HB2274:

Dear Chair Yamane, Chair Lowen, Vice Chair Tam, Vice Chair Marten, and members of the House Health, Human Services, & Homelessness and Energy and Environmental Protection Committees,

I SUPPORT WITH AMENDMENTS HB2274, which seeks to protect our islands' most precious resource from fuel contamination. Our water is precious and we all have a duty to protect our islands' source of life for present and future generations.

To best protect our groundwater now and in the future, please amend this measure by: 1) removing reference to the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility in the preamble, to avoid potential federal preemption challenges; 2) amending the proposed new definition of "underground fuel storage tank" to apply to facilities with field-constructed tanks, or with a capacity over 100,000 gallons; and 3) ensuring that no permit may be issued or renewed for an underground fuel storage tank or tank system, and that no underground fuel storage tank or tank system may be operated after the end of this year, for a facility located mauka of the underground injection control line.

Please PASS HB2274 with the above amendments.

Mahalo nui for the opportunity to testify!

[Your name]

Water licenses

HB2164 would allow the DLNR to issue 55-year water licenses through direct negotiation, rather than through the appraisal and public auction process currently required. The bad bill has a hearing on Tuesday, 9am in the House Committee on Water & Land.

Why is this bill bad?

HB2164 fails to address the concerns raised last year about the lack of appropriate safeguards to ensure that our public trust streams, springs, and aquifers and the people and life that depend on them are not wrongfully deprived of water, in favor of the politically and economically powerful corporations who will be negotiating for long-term water licenses.

Sample testimony

Dear Chair Tarnas, Vice Chair Branco, and members of the House Water & Land Committee,

I respectfully OPPOSE HB2164, which may facilitate the issuance of water licenses that inappropriately deprive our streams, estuaries, and aquifers, as well as the people, practices, and living things that depend on them, from the water they are rightfully entitled to, for up to 55 years at a time. Much greater conversation is needed between DLNR, the Water Commission, the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Native Hawaiian cultural practitioners, rural and subsistence communities, climate change experts, biologists, and others to develop sufficient statutory safeguards that can appropriately balance the rights and interests of the public and water licensees in the issuance of any water license through direct negotiation. Accordingly, I respectfully urge you to HOLD HB2164.

Mahalo nui for the opportunity to testify,

[your name]

Testimony instructions:

1. Register for a capitol website account if you havenʻt yet (youʻll need to confirm your registration by responding to an automated email)

2. Sign in to capitol.hawaii.gov with your registration information and click the orange "Testimony" button.

3. Enter "bill #" where it says "Enter Bill or Measure."

4. Input your information and your written testimony, and where it says "How will you be testifying?" make sure to check the bubble up to testify remotely via Zoom if you can!

5. If you are testifying via Zoom, sign back into your account on the capitol website three hours before the hearing and click on the orange "Testimony" button again; on the left hand side youʻll be able to scroll down and there will be a Zoom link next to the bill # (for more information see here)