HI HB780

Establishes a Desalination Planning Task Force within the Department of Land and Natural Resources to evaluate the feasibility of large-scale desalination for water consumption in Hawaii.

Task force membership includes representatives from the Department of Health, Board of Agriculture, Commission on Water Resource Management (chair), Office of Hawaiian Affairs, legislative water committees, and county water supply departments.

Task force shall conduct studies on water demand across housing, agriculture, and industrial sectors; examine desalination feasibility for supplementing groundwater and surface water; and assess impacts on water system resiliency, including effects from Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility contamination.

Task force must consider effects on historical sites, Native Hawaiian cultural sites, burial sites, and environmental concerns including high energy consumption of desalination plants.

Task force shall submit findings, recommendations, and proposed legislation to the legislature no later than twenty days before the 2026 regular session convening, and ceases to exist on June 30, 2026.