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SB471 • 2026

RELATING TO THE ENVIRONMENT.

RELATING TO THE ENVIRONMENT.

Water
Active

The official status still shows this bill as active or still awaiting another formal step.

Sponsor
KOUCHI (Introduced by request of another party)
Last action
2026-01-21
Official status
Re-Referred to AEN/WLA, WAM.
Effective date
Not listed

Plain English Breakdown

Using official source text because the generated explanation was unavailable or could not be confirmed against the official bill text.

RELATING TO THE ENVIRONMENT.

RELATING TO THE ENVIRONMENT.

What This Bill Does

  • RELATING TO THE ENVIRONMENT.
  • Hawaii State Association of Counties Package; Environment; Individual Wastewater Systems; Nearshore Waters; Denitrification Capacity Requires newly installed or modified individual wastewater systems that are near the shoreline, or likely to pollute groundwater, to include denitrification capacity.

Limits and Unknowns

  • This entry is temporarily using official source text because the generated explanation could not be confirmed against the official bill text during the last sync.

Bill History

  1. 2026-01-21 S

    Re-Referred to AEN/WLA, WAM.

  2. 2025-12-08 D

    Carried over to 2026 Regular Session.

  3. 2025-01-21 S

    Referred to AEN/WTL, WAM.

  4. 2025-01-16 S

    Passed First Reading.

  5. 2025-01-16 S

    Introduced.

Official Summary Text

RELATING TO THE ENVIRONMENT.
Hawaii State Association of Counties Package; Environment; Individual Wastewater Systems; Nearshore Waters; Denitrification Capacity
Requires newly installed or modified individual wastewater systems that are near the shoreline, or likely to pollute groundwater, to include denitrification capacity.

Current Bill Text

Read the full stored bill text 
SB471

THE SENATE

S.B. NO.

471

THIRTY-THIRD LEGISLATURE, 2025

STATE OF HAWAII

A BILL FOR AN ACT

RELATING
TO THE ENVIRONMENT
.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

����
SECTION 1.
�
The legislature finds that protecting the
State's nearshore waters is important for ecosystem resilience and public
health.
�
Clean nearshore waters that are
free of pollutants support coral reef systems that are critical to Hawaii's
fisheries.
�
A 2023 study published in the
scientific journal Nature found that coral reefs protected from land-based
pollutants, especially from wastewater pollutants, are better able to recover
from ocean-warming events.

����
Accordingly,
the purpose of this Act is to require newly installed or modified individual
wastewater systems that are near the shoreline, or likely to pollute
groundwater, to include denitrification capacity.

����
SECTION
2.
�
Chapter 342D, Hawaii Revised
Statutes, is amended by adding a new section to part III to be appropriately
designated and to read as follows:

����
"
�342D-
�
�
��
Individual wastewater systems;
denitrification capacity.
�
(a)
�

Each individual wastewater system that is newly installed or modified
shall have denitrification capacity if:

����
(1)
�
The wastewater system is located two
hundred feet or less from a shoreline; or

����
(2)
�
The wastewater system is located at
or below one thousand five hundred feet above sea level and:

���������
(A)
�
The substrate is less than five
thousand years old; and

���������
(B)
�
The soil has low nutrient holding
capacity, low shrink and swell characteristics, and very fast permeability,
based on the Hawaii soil atlas.

����
(b)
�
For the purposes of this section,
"denitrification capacity" means being certified to meet the
guidelines of the National Sanitation Foundation and American National
Standards Institute standard 245 for on-site residential wastewater treatment.
"

����
SECTION
3.
�
New statutory material is
underscored.

����
SECTION
4.
�
This Act shall take effect upon its
approval.

INTRODUCED
BY:

_____________________________

By
Request

Report Title:

Hawaii
State Association of Counties Package; Environment; Individual Wastewater
Systems; Nearshore Waters; Denitrification Capacity

Description:

Requires
newly installed or modified individual wastewater systems that are near the
shoreline, or likely to pollute groundwater, to include denitrification
capacity.

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not legislation or evidence of legislative intent.