(a) The department shall adopt, by rules, and from time to time update a Hawaii state contingency plan which, as nearly as the department deems appropriate and practicable, shall comport with and complement the National Contingency Plan prepared under the authority of the Clean Water Act and CERCLA. The state contingency plan shall include methods and criteria for evaluating the degree of hazard present at a site with releases of hazardous substances or pollutants or contaminants, including whether the site poses an imminent or substantial hazard, and whether it is a priority site, and whether response actions are feasible and effective. In preparing the plan, the department shall consider and take into account regionally and locally developed contingency plans.
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Terms Used In Hawaii Revised Statutes 128D-7

  • CERCLA: means the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980, P. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 128D-1
  • Clean Water Act: means the Federal Water Pollution Control Act of 1972, P. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 128D-1
  • Department: means the department of health. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 128D-1
  • Director: means the director of health. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 128D-1
  • Environment: means any waters, including surface water, ground water, or drinking water supply, any land surface or any subsurface strata, or any ambient air within the State of Hawaii or under the jurisdiction of the State. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 128D-1
  • Facility: means any building, structure, installation, equipment, pipe or pipeline (including any pipe into a sewer or publicly owned treatment works), well, pit, pond, lagoon, impoundment, ditch, landfill, storage container, motor vehicle, rolling stock, or aircraft, or any site or area where a hazardous substance or pollutant or contaminant has been deposited, stored, disposed of, or placed, or otherwise comes to be located; but does not include any consumer product in consumer use. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 128D-1
  • National contingency plan: means the national contingency plan published under section 311(d) of the Clean Water Act or revised pursuant to section 105 of CERCLA. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 128D-1
  • Release: means any spilling, leaking, pumping, pouring, emitting, emptying, discharging, injecting, escaping, leaching, dumping, or disposing of any hazardous substance or pollutant or contaminant into the environment, (including the abandonment or discarding of barrels, containers, and other closed receptacles containing any hazardous substance or pollutant or contaminant); but excludes:

    (1) Any release which results in exposure of persons solely within a workplace, with respect to a claim which such exposed persons may assert against their employer;

    (2) Emissions from the engine exhaust of a motor vehicle, rolling stock, aircraft, vessel, or pipeline pumping station engine;

    (3) Release of source, byproduct, or special nuclear material from a nuclear incident, as those terms are defined in the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 (42 U. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 128D-1

  • remedial action: means those actions consistent with permanent correction taken instead of or in addition to removal actions in the event of a release or threatened release of a hazardous substance or pollutant or contaminant into the environment, to prevent or minimize the release of hazardous substances so that they do not migrate to cause substantial danger to present or future public health or welfare or the environment. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 128D-1
  • removal action: means the cleanup of released hazardous substances or pollutants or contaminants from the environment, such actions as may be necessary to take in the event of the threat of release of hazardous substances or pollutants or contaminants into the environment, such actions as may be necessary to monitor, assess, and evaluate the release or threat of release of hazardous substances or pollutants or contaminants, the disposal of removed material, or the taking of such other actions as may be necessary to prevent, minimize, or mitigate damage to the public health or welfare or to the environment, which may otherwise result from a release or threat of release. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 128D-1
  • response: means remove, removal, remedy, or remedial action; and all such terms include government enforcement activities related thereto. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 128D-1
(b) The department shall adopt, by rules, the criteria for the selection and for the priority ranking of sites pursuant to subsection (c) for removal and remedial action under this chapter, and shall adopt criteria for the ranking of sites in order of priority. The criteria shall take into account the pertinent factors relating to the public health and the environment, which shall include, but are not limited to, potential hazards to public health and the environment, the risk of fire or explosion, toxic hazards, the extent to which the deferral of remedial action will result, or is likely to result, in a rapid increase in cost or in a hazard to human health and the environment. The criteria may include a minimum hazard threshold below which sites shall not be listed pursuant to this section.
(c) The department shall publish and revise, at least annually, a listing of the sites subject to this chapter and any de minimis settlements made under this chapter. The sites shall be categorized and placed on one of the following lists:

(1) A list of the sites with releases of hazardous substances for which the department has identified a responsible party, and the responsible party is in compliance, as determined by the department, with an order issued, or an enforceable agreement entered into.
(2) A list of the sites with releases of hazardous substances for which all of the following apply:

(A) The department has not been able to identify a responsible party or the responsible party is not in compliance, as determined by the department, with an order issued or an enforceable agreement entered into;
(B) The nature and extent of the release of hazardous substances at the site have not been adequately characterized by the responsible party or the department.
(d) Funds appropriated to the department for response actions shall be expended in conformance with the priority ranking of sites, as established on the list of sites specified in subsection (c), except that funds appropriated for removal action may be expended without conforming to the priority ranking if any of the following apply:

(1) The funds are necessary to monitor removal actions conducted by private parties at sites listed pursuant to subsection (c)(1);
(2) State funds are necessary for the State’s share of a removal or remedial action pursuant to section 104(c)(3) of CERCLA;
(3) The funds are used to assess, evaluate, and characterize the nature and extent of a release of hazardous substances or pollutants or contaminants at sites listed pursuant to this section; or
(4) The director determines that immediate removal action at a facility or site is necessary because there may be an imminent and substantial endangerment to the public health or welfare or the environment.
(e) The criminal penalties set forth in sections 128D-3 and 128D-10 shall not take effect until the state contingency plan has been adopted. Until the state contingency plan is adopted, the National Contingency Plan, as it exists on the effective date of this chapter, will be considered to be the state contingency plan for purposes of enforcing the remaining sections of this chapter.
(f) The department may adopt such rules, as it deems necessary for the implementation, administration, and enforcement of this chapter, CERCLA, the Clean Water Act, and other pertinent laws.

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