BILL SB 507 RELATING TO WETLAND PRESERVATIONS

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Donna Wong
Executive Director
Phone/fax: 808-262-0682
2023 Legislative Bills
GOOD BILL
SB 507 RELATING TO WETLAND PRESERVATIONS
The purpose of SB 507 is to protect waterways and wetlands
from mauka to makai.
HEARING: Friday February 3 at 2:05 pm
SENATE COMMITTEES ON AGRICULTURE AND ENVIRONMENT & WATER AND LAND
SB 507 RELATING TO WETLAND PRESERVATIONS
Signers on the bill: GABBARD, Kidani, Shimabukuro
SB 507 adds new definitions to the State Environmental Impact Statements law HRS 343 to encourage the preservation of wetlands.
  • “Natural stormwater infrastructure” means all naturally occurring streams, ephemeral streams, gulches, drainage corridors, wetlands, floodways, and other areas where water naturally collects or drains to the ocean.
  • “Wetlands” are defined as land that is transitional between terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems where water is the primary factor controlling the environment and the associated animal and plant life, where for any duration of time, including non-consecutive years, the water table is at or near the surface and the land is covered by water or saturated by: subsurface water, well or ditch influent water, marsh, peatland, marine water, riparian zone, coastal zones adjacent to wetlands,
Including these definitions in HRS 343 means that anyone conducting an EIS must consider impacts from the proposed development on floodways, natural stormwater ways, and wetlands.
Statewide, more than 31% of coastal wetlands have been lost.
Wetlands protect beaches against erosion, recharge aquifers, protect against flooding, provide habitat for endangered species, filter sediment and nutrients from stormwater runoff before reaching the ocean and coral reefs. Surface water, ground water, floodplains, and wetlands do not function as separate isolated components of a watershed but is a single, integrated natural system.
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