Bill Text: HI HB1723 | 2022 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Relating To Aquaculture.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2022-01-26 - Referred to AGR/ECD, CPC, FIN, referral sheet 2 [HB1723 Detail]
Download: Hawaii-2022-HB1723-Introduced.html
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HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES |
H.B. NO. |
1723 |
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THIRTY-FIRST LEGISLATURE, 2022 |
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STATE OF HAWAII |
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A BILL FOR AN ACT
relating to aquaculture.
BE IT
ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:
SECTION 1. The legislature finds that diversification of the State's economy is necessary to lessen the economic dependence on tourism and to respond to the economic downturn exacerbated by the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. Supporting local aquaculture can help the State move towards greater food sustainability and expand a home-based workforce. Seafood demand regularly outpaces supply and world fishery resources are quickly depleting. Accordingly, there is significant growth potential for commercial activities in the State's aquaculture industry and for aspiring entrepreneurs looking to establish themselves in this global emerging industry.
The legislature further finds that establishing
a centralized aquaculture program under the department of agriculture will help
to streamline efficiency of functions, safety, and enforcement to further enhance
Hawaii as a leader in the global aquaculture industry.
Therefore, the purpose of this Act is to move
certain responsibilities and functions related to aquaculture to the department
of agriculture and to:
(1) Establish the Shellfish Sanitation Act to be administered by the department of agriculture's division of animal industry aquaculture and livestock support services branch; and
(2) Transfer certain positions, records, and equipment from the department of health to the department of agriculture.
SECTION 2. The Hawaii Revised Statutes is amended by adding a new chapter to be appropriately designated and to read as follows:
"Chapter
shellfish
sanitation act
part
i. general provisions
§ -1
Short title; purpose. This
chapter shall be known as the "Shellfish Sanitation Act". The purpose of this chapter is to establish sanitary
controls for the shellfish industry to be regulated by the aquaculture and livestock
support services branch of the division of animal industry of the department of
agriculture. These provisions shall apply
to the growing area and to all aspects of harvesting, processing, packaging, storing,
and distributing of shellfish.
§ -2 Definitions. As
used in this chapter unless the context otherwise requires:
"Act" means the "Hawaii Shellfish
Sanitation Act".
"Approved growing area" means an area
which has been approved by the division for growing and harvesting of shellfish
for direct marketing.
"Aquaculture" means the propagation,
cultivation, or farming of aquatic plants and animals in controlled or selected
environments for commercial purposes.
"Artificial growing system for shellfish"
means a man-made system with definite boundaries in which shellfish are grown and
where supplemental material is introduced for ultimate utilization by the shellfish.
"Board" means the board of agriculture
of the State.
"Department" means the department
of agriculture.
"Depuration" means the process of
removing microbial contaminants from live shellfish by placing them in a water environment
of low coliform, low turbidity, and free from chemicals which are detrimental to
health.
"Division" means the division of animal
industry's aquaculture and livestock support services branch.
"Growing area" means any offshore
ocean, coastal, estuarine, or fresh water area suitable for natural shellfish growth
artificial shellfish propagation.
"Harvester" means a person who takes
shellfish from growing areas for commercial purposes.
"Market shellfish" means fresh or
frozen shellfish, or parts thereof, sold for human consumption.
"National Shellfish Sanitation Program"
means the cooperative federal, state, and industry program for the certification
of interstate shellfish shippers as described in Public Health Service Publication
Number 33, National Shellfish Sanitation Program Manual of Operations, Parts I and
II (1965).
"Pathogen" means any disease-producing
microorganism or material.
"Person" means an individual, firm,
partnership, company, corporation, trustee, association, or any public or private
entity.
"Processor" means a repacker, shellstock
shipper, or shucker-packer.
"Prohibited area" means a shellfish
growing area where hazardous levels of toxic material or pathogens may be found
or where a sanitary survey has not been made.
"Relaying" means the moving of market
shellfish from waters classified as restricted or prohibited to an approved area
for the purpose of natural purification.
"Restricted area" means a shellfish
growing area subject to moderate degrees of pollution, as further defined by the
division per rule, which would make it unsafe to harvest shellfish for direct marketing
but from which shellfish may be subject to depuration or relaying with approval
of the division.
"Sanitary survey" means the evaluation
of all factors having a bearing on the sanitary quality of a shellfish growing area
including sources of pollution, the effects of wind, tides, and currents, and distribution
and dilution of the polluting materials, and the bacteriological quality of the
water.
"Shellfish" means all edible species
of oysters, clams, and muscles of the molluscan class Pelecypoda. This term does not include shellfish or products
thereof which, in their final packaging, have been heat-sterilized and packaged
in hermetically sealed containers.
"Shellstock" means shellfish still
in their shells.
PART
II. ADMINISTRATION, POWERS, AND DUTIES
§ -6 Administration. The
division shall administer this chapter subject to the supervision of the board.
The division may delegate any of its powers
except the power to make rules and regulations and may direct any of its duties
to be performed by any appropriate agents, officers, or employees of the division.
The division may employ on a full or part-time
basis employees and inspectors, subject to chapter 76, as are necessary to carry
out the administration of this chapter and a uniform inspection system of shellfish
or shellfish products in the State.
§ -7 General powers and duties. The division
may:
(1) Regulate, supervise, inspect, and control the operation or business of growing, harvesting, shucking, packing, repacking, or reshipping of fresh or fresh-frozen shellfish for sale to the public for human consumption;
(2) Adopt, amend, and repeal rules as are necessary to implement this chapter, subject to chapter 91, on the following matters:
(A) The issuance of permits or certifications, including any class of permits or certifications to be issued;
(B) The revocation or suspension of a permit if, for any reason the safety of the shellfish as an article of food is not assured or if the standards set forth herein are not met, or if the permit was obtained by misrepresentation, or omission of relevant information;
(C) The administration and enforcement of this chapter and rules adopted thereto;
(D) The type of equipment or facilities that may be used in operations or businesses involving shellfish;
(E) The internal operations of plants or businesses involving shellfish;
(F) The procedures for inspections of shellfish products;
(G) The labeling and packaging of shellfish;
(H) The storing, handling, and transportation of shellfish;
(I) The sanitary conditions of all establishments engaged in commercial aquaculture operations, and where shellfish products are processed or prepared; and
(J) Any other matters as may be necessary or desirable to implement this chapter.
Notwithstanding the foregoing provisions, the division, without regard to the notice and public hearing requirements of chapter 91, may adopt all federal regulations, including changes made from time to time by the United States Secretary of Agriculture, as rules for the efficient administration of this chapter.
PART III. PERMITS AND OPERATIONS
§ -12 Permit required. (a) The regulations governing requirements for shellfish
certification in their several forms in the State shall equal or exceed the requirements
set forth by the Food and Drug Administration of the United States Department of
Health and Human Services, and the National Shellfish Sanitation Program.
(b) No
person in the State shall operate a plant, business engaged in growing, harvesting,
shucking, packing, repacking, or reshipping fresh or fresh-frozen shellfish for
sale to the public for human consumption without a valid permit issued and administered
by the division.
(c) Each
permit holder shall notify the division immediately by telephone if there is any
report or knowledge of contamination of its shellfish or of suspected illness from
consumption of its shellfish. The harvesting,
distribution, and sale of shellfish shall cease immediately pending review of the
safety of the product and approval by the division to resume operations.
(d) A
person who exports shellfish certified by the division shall be listed on the Interstate
Certified Shellfish Shippers List of the United States Public, Health Service, Food
and Drug Administration.
§ -13 Application for a permit. (a)
Applications for permits shall be filed with
the division. Each application, if necessary,
shall be accompanied with sufficient written data, drawings, and descriptions for
the division to evaluate the operation relative to the provisions of this chapter.
(b) A
permit issued under this chapter shall be valid for a period not to exceed one year
or a portion thereof, with automatic expiration on June 30 of each year. An application for renewal of a permit shall be
made on or before June 1. Permits are not
transferable.
§ -14 Shellfish growing areas. (a)
No person shall buy, sell, offer for sale,
receive, keep, transport, deliver, or take any shellfish not declared by the division
to be approved or otherwise fit for direct marketing.
(b) The
division shall make a sanitary survey of each shellfish growing area prior to its
classification as "approved", "restricted", or "prohibited".
Any sanitary survey shall evaluate all sources
of actual and potential pollution in the area including but not limited to pesticides,
industrial wastes, and sewage effluent. In
addition, the effect of wind action, water flow, and currents in distributing polluting
materials over a growing area shall be considered.
(c) Growing
areas in which sanitary surveys have not been made shall be automatically classified
as prohibited.
(d) The
taking of shellfish from prohibited areas for direct marketing shall be prohibited.
(e) The
division shall adopt rules pursuant to chapter 91 to further carry out and effectuate
the purposes of this section.
§ -15
Artificial growing systems for shellfish.
(a) Artificial growing systems for shellfish shall
meet the performance criteria of natural growing water systems as provided in this
chapter or by rule adopted by the division. The operator of an artificial growing system shall
be issued a shellstock shipper's certificate. Harvesting, processing, packing, storing, and shucking
operating shall be the same as for shellfish reared in natural waters, as required
by the division.
(b) An artificial growing system shall have a program
of sanitation, maintenance, and supervision approved by the division to prevent
the contamination of the final shellfish product. Plumbing and sewage disposal shall be as expressed
for a packaging facility of shellstock."
SECTION 3. Section 321-11, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:
"§321-11 Subjects of health rules, generally. The department of health pursuant to chapter 91 may adopt rules that it deems necessary for the public health and safety respecting:
(1) Nuisances, foul or noxious odors, gases, vapors, waters in which mosquitoes breed or may breed, sources of filth, and causes of sickness or disease, within the respective districts of the State, and on board any vessel;
(2) Adulteration and misbranding of food or drugs;
(3) Location, air space, ventilation, sanitation, drainage, sewage disposal, and other health conditions of buildings, courts, construction projects, excavations, pools, watercourses, areas, and alleys;
(4) Privy vaults and cesspools;
(5) Fish and fishing[;], except for the shellfish
industry subject to chapter ;
(6) Interments and dead bodies;
(7) Disinterments of dead human bodies, including the exposing, disturbing, or removing of these bodies from their place of burial, or the opening, removing, or disturbing after due interment of any receptacle, coffin, or container holding human remains or a dead human body or a part thereof and the issuance and terms of permits for the aforesaid disinterments of dead human bodies;
(8) Cemeteries and burying grounds;
(9) Laundries, and the laundering, sanitation, and sterilization of articles including linen and uniforms used by or in the following businesses and professions: barber shops, manicure shops, beauty parlors, electrology shops, restaurants, soda fountains, hotels, rooming and boarding houses, bakeries, butcher shops, public bathhouses, midwives, masseurs, and others in similar calling, public or private hospitals, and canneries and bottling works where foods or beverages are canned or bottled for public consumption or sale; provided that nothing in this chapter shall be construed as authorizing the prohibiting of laundering, sanitation, and sterilization by those conducting any of these businesses or professions where the laundering or sterilization is done in an efficient and sanitary manner;
(10) Hospitals, freestanding surgical outpatient
facilities, skilled nursing facilities, intermediate care facilities, adult
residential care homes, adult foster homes, assisted living facilities, special
treatment facilities and programs, home health agencies, home care agencies,
hospices, freestanding birthing facilities, adult day health centers,
independent group residences, and therapeutic living programs, but excluding
youth shelter facilities unless clinical treatment of mental, emotional, or
physical disease or handicap is a part of the routine program or constitutes
the main purpose of the facility, as defined in section 346-16 under "child
[[]caring[]] institution".
For the purpose of this paragraph, "adult foster home" has the
same meaning as provided in section 321-11.2;
(11) Hotels, rooming houses, lodging houses, apartment houses, tenements, and residences for persons with developmental disabilities including those built under federal funding;
(12) Laboratories;
(13) Any place or building where noisome or noxious trades or manufacturing is carried on, or intended to be carried on;
(14) Milk;
(15) Poisons and hazardous substances, the latter term including any substance or mixture of substances that:
(A) Is corrosive;
(B) Is an irritant;
(C) Is a strong sensitizer;
(D) Is inflammable; or
(E) Generates pressure through decomposition, heat, or other means,
if the substance or mixture of substances may cause substantial personal injury or substantial illness during or as a proximate result of any customary or reasonably foreseeable handling or use, including reasonably foreseeable ingestion by children;
(16) Pig and duck ranches;
(17) Places of business, industry, employment, and commerce, and the processes, materials, tools, machinery, and methods of work done therein; and places of public gathering, recreation, or entertainment;
(18) Any restaurant, theater, market, stand, shop, store, factory, building, wagon, vehicle, or place where any food, drug, or cosmetic is manufactured, compounded, processed, extracted, prepared, stored, distributed, sold, offered for sale, or offered for human consumption or use;
(19) Foods, drugs, and cosmetics, and the manufacture, compounding, processing, extracting, preparing, storing, selling, and offering for sale, consumption, or use of any food, drug, or cosmetic;
(20) [[]Device[]] as defined in
section 328-1;
(21) Sources of ionizing radiation;
(22) Medical examination, vaccination, revaccination, and immunization of school children. No child shall be subjected to medical examination, vaccination, revaccination, or immunization, whose parent or guardian objects in writing thereto on grounds that the requirements are not in accordance with the religious tenets of an established church of which the parent or guardian is a member or adherent, but no objection shall be recognized when, in the opinion of the department, there is danger of an epidemic from any communicable disease;
(23) Disinsectization of aircraft entering or within the State as may be necessary to prevent the introduction, transmission, or spread of disease or the introduction or spread of any insect or other vector of significance to health;
(24) Fumigation, including the process by which substances emit or liberate gases, fumes, or vapors that may be used for the destruction or control of insects, vermin, rodents, or other pests, which, in the opinion of the department, may be lethal, poisonous, noxious, or dangerous to human life;
(25) Ambulances and ambulance equipment;
(26) Development, review, approval, or disapproval of management plans submitted pursuant to the Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act of 1986, Public Law 99-519; and
(27) Development, review, approval, or disapproval of an accreditation program for specially trained persons pursuant to the Residential Lead-Based Paint Hazard Reduction Act of 1992, Public Law 102-550.
The department of health may require any certificates, permits, or licenses that it may deem necessary to adequately regulate the conditions or businesses referred to in this section."
SECTION 4. All rights, powers, functions, and duties of the department of health's food safety branch regarding the sanitary controls for the shellfish industry are transferred to the department of agriculture's division of animal industry aquaculture and livestock support services branch.
All employees who occupy civil service positions and whose functions are transferred to the department of agriculture by this Act shall retain their civil service status, whether permanent or temporary. Employees shall be transferred without loss of salary, seniority (except as prescribed by applicable collective bargaining agreements), retention points, prior service credit, any vacation and sick leave credits previously earned, and other rights, benefits, and privileges, in accordance with state personnel laws and this Act; provided that the employees possess the minimum qualifications and public employment requirements for the class or position to which transferred or appointed, as applicable; provided further that subsequent changes in status may be made pursuant to applicable civil service and compensation laws.
Any employee who, prior to this Act, is exempt from civil service and is transferred as a consequence of this Act may retain the employee's exempt status, but shall not be appointed to a civil service position as a consequence of this Act. An exempt employee who is transferred by this Act shall not suffer any loss of prior service credit, vacation or sick leave credits previously earned, or other employee benefits or privileges as a consequence of this Act; provided that the employees possess legal and public employment requirements for the position to which transferred or appointed, as applicable; provided further that subsequent changes in status may be made pursuant to applicable employment and compensation laws. The chairperson of the board of agriculture may prescribe the duties and qualifications of these employees and fix their salaries without regard to chapter 76, Hawaii Revised Statutes.
SECTION 5. All appropriations, records, equipment, machines, files, supplies, contracts, books, papers, documents, maps, and other personal property heretofore made, used, acquired, or held by the department of health's food safety branch relating to the functions transferred to the department of agriculture shall be transferred with the functions to which they relate.
SECTION 6. Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken. New statutory material is underscored.
SECTION 7. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.
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INTRODUCED BY: |
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Report Title:
Aquaculture; Shellfish Sanitation Act; Permits; Department of Agriculture; Division of Animal Industry; Aquaculture and Livestock Support Services Branch; Employees; Records
Description:
Establishes the Shellfish Sanitation Act to be administered by the Department of Agriculture's Division of Animal Industry Aquaculture and Livestock Support Services Branch. Transfers certain positions, records, and equipment from the Department of Health to the Department of Agriculture.
The summary description
of legislation appearing on this page is for informational purposes only and is
not legislation or evidence of legislative intent.
