Bill Text: HI SB1057 | 2010 | Regular Session | Amended
Bill Title: Detention and Retention Ponds
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 4-0)
Status: (Engrossed - Dead) 2009-05-11 - Carried over to 2010 Regular Session. [SB1057 Detail]
Download: Hawaii-2010-SB1057-Amended.html
STAND. COM. REP. NO. 354
Honolulu, Hawaii
RE: S.B. No. 1057
S.D. 1
Honorable Colleen Hanabusa
President of the Senate
Twenty-Fifth State Legislature
Regular Session of 2009
State of Hawaii
Madam:
Your Committees on Energy and Environment and Water, Land, Agriculture, and Hawaiian Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 1057 entitled:
"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO DETENTION AND RETENTION PONDS,"
beg leave to report as follows:
The purpose of this measure is to ensure the health, safety, and welfare of the citizens of the State by:
(1) Adopting design and maintenance requirements for retention ponds, detention ponds, and catchment area ponds; and
(2) Including retention pond, detention pond, and catchment area pond safety within the Department of Education's water safety curriculum.
Testimony in support of this measure was submitted by one private organization and fourteen individuals, including Allison Schaefers, whose daughter, Charlotte "Sharkey", drowned in 2004 while attempting to rescue a friend who had fallen into a retention pond. Testimony in support of the intent of this measure was submitted by one private organization. Testimony in opposition to the measure was submitted by one county department and four private organizations. Comments were submitted by two state departments and two private organizations. Written testimony presented to the Committees may be reviewed on the Legislature's website.
Various testifiers, including Allison Schaefers, expressed concerns that the design and maintenance requirements in this measure may be premature, and suggested first establishing a task force to collect data and examine the advisability and effectiveness of a detention/retention pond safety program before instituting specific design and maintenance requirements. Comments regarding the specifics of such a task force were submitted by the American Council of Engineering Companies of Hawaii.
Your Committees find that the unintended hazards that may be posed by detention and retention ponds must be thoroughly examined and appropriate safeguards instituted. The life of a child is a terrible and tragic price to pay in the name of design expedience or cost-effectiveness, when simple measures, such as warning signs, could have prevented this tragedy.
Your Committees have amended this measure by:
(1) Deleting its contents and substituting the language regarding the water safety task force recommended by the American Council of Engineering Companies of Hawaii;
(2) Inserting into the revised measure the following: "This Act shall be known as the "Charlotte 'Sharkey' Schaefers Act", in memory of the young girl who drowned in 2004 while attempting to rescue a friend who had fallen into a retention pond"; and
(3) Modifying the revised measure by emphasizing that the task force shall determine the appropriate warning signs for retention ponds.
As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Energy and Environment and Water, Land, Agriculture, and Hawaiian Affairs that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1057, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1057, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.
Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Energy and Environment and Water, Land, Agriculture, and Hawaiian Affairs,
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____________________________ CLAYTON HEE, Chair |
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____________________________ MIKE GABBARD, Chair |
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