House Standing Committee on Public Safety

Good morning. Convening our joint committees on public safety and water land. Today is Wednesday, 04/08/2026. It is 11AM. We are in Conference Room 411, and I hope everyone across the state is saying staying safe and dry.

First up on this agenda, one the only thing we have on this agenda is HCR 200, HR 190, urging the United States Department of Defense to reassess prior determinations and closure decisions under the comprehensive environmental response compensation and liability act in light of evolving scientific understanding of per and polyfluorohelicyl substances and recent federal hazardous substance designations. I will ask the next the first testifier to come up and correct my mispronunciation of PFAS.

So if we could have mister Ernie Lau come up to testify in support. Mr. Lau is from the Honolulu Board of Water Supply. Good morning, Mr. Lau.

My chairs and members, I'll try to pronounce it, with best my abilities. Per and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS. This is, there are over 15,000 of these chemicals that was created in the, like, the forties and fifties. And a lot of it's still in use. And military installations, you know, have widely used, PFAS containing substances, whether it's firefighting foam or other things, on the base.

So I think this, these resolutions are are a great idea, and I strongly support it. We need to go back to areas where previous investigations are completed and and relook at them. For example, the IEL Laundry, old IEL Navy IEL Laundry, which is next to Saint Elizabeth's Church in Aya. That was a site that was closed and under remediation right now. We suggested that a mono groundwater monitor well there be sampled and tested for PFAS, And we made that recommendation to our state and federal regulators.

Unfortunately, the decision was and from the navy was to decline our request. But it's slow hanging fruit because that's an existing monitor well. They can take a sample right there at a site that was previously closed and re undergoing under remediation and look for PFAS because not less than a mile away from that site is the Navy's Aya Halawa Shaft. And they're finding PFAS at that at that location.

In fact, they've installed a temporary water treatment system to remove PFAS and other petroleum contaminants from their drinking water so they can reactivate and supply the base water system with some of that water.

So thank you for doing this. We we strongly support it.

Thank you, mister Brown. We have testimony in support from the environmental caucus of the Democratic Party of Hawaii, miss Melody Oduja. We have testimony in support from Hawaii Reef and Ocean Coalition and Climate Protectors Hawaii, mister Ted Bolen. We have testimony from individuals, Johnny Mae Perry and Beth Anderson, as well as Susan Pecola Davis. Any other testifiers in the room?

Any other testifiers with you? Seeing none numbers, any questions? Question. Representative Shimizu.

Mister Lau, before your most diligent valuable question is, you know, with PFAS being everywhere from multiple sources, how how would we determine the source of what is detected?

You know, that is a a good point. And it's always gonna be a challenge because, you know, PFAS is in a lot of products that people use every day. Stain resistant carpeting, nonstick coated pans, other things, pizza boxes, etcetera. Our clothing too. But the military has been a use of PFAS as well documented too.

And they've actually requesting, telling Congress a few years ago, they told Congress that there are essential needs for continued use of PFAS containing compounds or processes on the navies and on the military installation. So, I guess I would look at the we're looking at military sites if they're finding on their property or on monitor wells they've installed nearby, then there's a greater likelihood that maybe it's PFAS coming from the installation.

If it's PFOS and PFOA, those are some of the earlier versions of PFAS that they use. What the military did was develop this process to put out fuel fires, especially when you have a fuel fire like on a ship or on a airfield. They came up with this firefighting foam system containing initially some of the PFOS and PFOA, PFAS compounds.

So if you find those for example, like at Red Hill, they're finding PFOS and PFOA. PFOS is being found at the Navy's Aiea Halawa Shaft. And we're also finding PFOS at our Ka'a Mila Wells further to the west near Aiea High School. So you don't know for sure, but you can try to collect the information and and do the, kind of, investigation into possible sources of uses of chemicals or some processes that may have contained, involved PFAS and, try to do that.

That's all we can do the best we can.

Chair, can I ask a follow-up question?

Any other questions first? Go ahead.

You know, you mentioned IEL and that's that's in my district. Is that a combination from

a military source or was Yeah. Laundry there? That was, the laundry and they also, when we were also on the restoration advisory board for Joint Base Per Harbor Hickam Kamai Lua. We were given a tour by the Navy of the site and I appreciate that they did a good job on that tour. So there was some old Navy laundry, but mock of that right next to it was a maintenance facility too.

So they I think we're looking at petroleum contamination. There's, Saint Elizabeth's church and the preschool right next to it too. So they're doing ongoing monitoring and testing there, and they have some remediation technology. I think it's vapor extraction systems still left there. But there is one monitor well that wasn't sealed that still, is an opportunity now to test for PFAS at that location.

Because not far away, they they have found PFAS in monitor wells in that Red Hill Shaft. I mean, the Aya Halawa Shaft, the Navy's Aya Halawa Shaft. So I heard, yes, it is from the military. I suspect, but I cannot say, with a 100% assurance.

Any other questions?

Can I ask one last question?

Yes. One last question.

So that monitoring while that's there, is there any discussions to, utilize that?

We sent a formal request and and Joyce, I think it was to the Navy, to the EPA and the Department of Health and the Navy to it's already there. It's a a existing hole in the ground and you can take a sample of the aquifer groundwater and test word. Why not just add it to the Red Hill monitor well network? There's no additional cost to construct it. It's already there.

Unfortunately, the response we got, well, it's it's over a mile away from the Red Hill facility, so why would we wanna test?

Okay. Thank you. Thank you, chair.

I have two quick questions. If anyone has any other questions. Mister Lau. First question. This is such a new and developing area of science.

Prior, to this change in the administration, was there a sense that in coordination with other federal agencies that there was gonna be more that would be done around the issues of p fives and more stringent regulations that we had anticipated?

I I think that is in the cards, chair. I just saw a press conference put in by the, EPA and the Department of Health and and Human Services, HHS. And they identified candidate contaminant lists for the next round of samples that they're gonna require water utilities to start to test nationwide. And they identified things like microplastics, pharmaceuticals, and also PFAS was part of their initiative too. The number

Under this current administration?

Under the current administration. Okay. Administrator, EPA administrator Lee Zelder was there at the press conference, and it's available online if you wanna look at it. But, they are looking at, more investigations on PFAS contamination.

Okay. And then one second question, shifting away from the Federal Government, but for your contemporaries across the nation, is this a similar kind of push that you're seeing other water managers, you know, people who are overseeing large, municipal water systems? Are they also doing similar things like this resolution?

I I don't know if they're doing or or working with their legislative bodies to actually put forward resolutions. I know this is front of mind for, probably over 2,000 utilities across the, The US, right now because we're all dealing with, PFAS contamination to different degrees and different amounts of types of PFAS. So it is front of mind for water utilities. The EPA, a few years ago, passed some national primary drinking water regulations for PFAS.

This is the first time in a long time that they did that.

And they identified and and identified up to six different PFAS chemicals. EPA current administration is looking and trying to reduce that number. But the two that stand out to me that EPA under the current administration and the prior administration was for PFOA and PFOS. They definitely still agree that four parts per trillion is the maximum contaminant level for those compounds in drinking water.

Okay. Thank you. Thank you, mister Lau, and thank you always for, making sure that the residents of the city and county of Honolulu are always front and center in all of your, work to protect our water system. So thank you.

Mahalo for all the chief folks too. Thank you.

Okay. Members, if there's no further questions, we have a quorum and we are ready to vote. We don't have to actually recess. Chair's recommendation on h t r 200, HR 190 is to pass as is. HMSO has not identified any tech amendments, and so this one is good to go, members.

Questions, comments, or concerns? Seeing none, so for our public safety, vice chair Iwo Mouro.

Voting on HCR 200 and HR 190, chair's recommendation is to pass both as is. Chair and vice chair vote aye. Representative Hashan? Aye. Representative Hichiyama?

Aye.

Representative Marikawa? Aye. Representative Poitfoyle? Aye. And representative Woodson is excused.

Representative Shimizu? Aye. Representative Susan?

Aye.

Chair, your recommendations are adopted.

Okay. For the committee on Waterland, same recommendation. Members, any questions, comments? Seeing none, please take your vote.

Members are voting on HR 190 and HCR 200 completely. Chair's recommendation is to pass on the MedBed. Anybody wanting to change their vote? Saying none. Chair, your recommendation is adopted.

Members, please stay safe and dry as we head into the stormy weekend. I believe we may be having another hearing both as public safety and water land for any Concurrent Resolutions that cross over from the Senate. But, otherwise, thank you all for your hard work, and, again, please stay safe and done. We are adjourned.