SB 848 Hawaii Senate · 2026 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 passed 3 of 5 stages cleared

Introduction

Jan 2025

Committee Review

Feb 2025

Senate Passage

Feb 2025

House Passage

Governor

Introduced Jan 17, 2025 Last action Dec 8, 2025

Maddy AI version diff · 1 comparison

What changed between versions

SB848 → SB848_SD1 · 3 edits

MINOR

The bill was updated from its original introduction to its first Senate committee version (SD1), changing the title from 'SB 848' to 'SB 848 SD1' and updating internal tracking metadata. Substantively, the bill's scope was expanded to require the new Desalination Planning Task Force to address the disposal of brine concentrate in addition to high energy consumption. The bill's formatting was also standardized to use all capital letters for the title and subject matter description.

Scope change

The bill's scope was broadened to explicitly include the management of brine concentrate disposal as a key environmental concern for the new task force.

REQUIREMENT

Added a requirement for the Desalination Planning Task Force to address the disposal of brine concentrate alongside existing energy consumption concerns.

TECHNICAL

Updated bill metadata including version numbers, revision dates, and template identifiers to reflect the first Senate committee version.

Changed the bill title and subject matter description to all capital letters for standard formatting.

Floor votes

How they voted

This bill passed the Senate by voice vote (no roll call recorded).

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

Feb 12, 2025

Upper · Passed

Report adopted; Passed Second Reading, as amended (SD 1) and referred to WAM.

upper

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