SB 848 Hawaii Senate · 2025 Regular Session

RELATING TO DESALINATION.

Summary

Establishes a Desalination Planning Task Force to examine the feasibility of, and develop a plan and timeline for, the use desalination as a source of potable water in the State. (SD1)

Bill status in committee 1 of 4 stages cleared

Introduction

Jan 2025

Committee Review

Floor Vote

Governor

Introduced Jan 17, 2025 Last action Feb 12, 2025

Maddy AI version diff · 1 comparison

What changed between versions

SB848 → SB848_SD1 · 3 edits

MINOR

This bill establishes a Desalination Planning Task Force to study the feasibility of large-scale desalination in Hawaii. The task force will examine water demand, evaluate desalination as a water source, assess impacts on water system resiliency (including Red Hill contamination), and consider environmental and cultural concerns. The task force will submit a report to the legislature by early 2026 and will cease to exist by June 30, 2026.

Scope change

The bill's scope remains focused on establishing a planning task force for desalination feasibility studies, with no change to the overall applicability or target audience.

REQUIREMENT

Added specific requirement to address brine concentrate disposal in environmental concerns assessment

TIMELINE

Report submission deadline remains twenty days before 2026 regular session convening; task force dissolution date remains June 30, 2026

TECHNICAL

Minor formatting and text cleanup changes including removal of placeholder text and standardization of formatting

Floor votes

How they voted

No floor votes recorded yet.

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

Feb 12, 2025

Committee

Reported from WTL (Stand. Com. Rep. No. 292) with recommendation of passage on Second Reading, as amended (SD 1) and referral to WAM.

upper

Feb 3, 2025

Upper · Passed

The committee(s) on WTL recommend(s) that the measure be PASSED, WITH AMENDMENTS. The votes in WTL were as follows: 5 Aye(s): Senator(s) Inouye, Elefante, Chang, McKelvey, DeCorte; Aye(s) with reservations: none ; 0 No(es): none; and 0 Excused: none.

upper

Jan 31, 2025

Upper · Passed

The committee(s) on WTL has scheduled a public hearing on 02-03-25 1:06PM; Conference Room 229 & Videoconference.

upper

Jan 23, 2025

Committee

Referred to WTL, WAM.

upper

Jan 17, 2025

Introduced

Introduced.

upper

10 primary · 1 co-sponsor