(a) Except as provided in subsection (g), a person may not discharge untreated sewage from a commercial passenger vessel into the marine waters of the State.
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Terms Used In Hawaii Revised Statutes 342D-102

  • Act: means the Clean Water Act (formally referred to as the Federal Water Pollution Control Act or Federal Water Pollution Control Act Amendments of 1972), P. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 342D-1
  • Commercial passenger vessel: means a vessel that carries passengers for hire. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 342D-101
  • Department: means the department of health. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 342D-1
  • Discharge: means any release, however caused, from a commercial passenger vessel, and includes any escape, disposal, spilling, leaking, pumping, emitting, or emptying. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 342D-101
  • Effluent: means any substance discharged into state waters, publicly owned treatment works, or sewerage systems, including, but not limited to, sewage, waste, garbage, feculent matter, offal, filth, refuse, any animal, mineral, or vegetable matter or substance, and any liquid, gaseous, or solid substances. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 342D-1
  • Large commercial passenger vessel: means a commercial passenger vessel that provides overnight accommodations for two hundred fifty or more passengers for hire, determined with reference to the number of lower berths and based on an average of two persons per cabin. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 342D-101
  • Person: means any individual, partnership, firm, association, public or private corporation, federal agency, the State or any of its political subdivisions, trust, estate, or any other legal entity. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 342D-1
  • Pollution: means water pollution. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 342D-1
  • Sewage: means human body wastes and the wastes from toilets and other receptacles intended to receive or retain human body waste. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 342D-101
  • Small commercial passenger vessel: means a commercial passenger vessel that provides overnight accommodations for two hundred forty-nine or fewer passengers for hire, determined with reference to the number of lower berths and based on an average of two persons per cabin. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 342D-101
  • Vessel: means any form or manner of watercraft, other than a seaplane on the water, whether or not capable of self-propulsion. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 342D-101
  • wastewater: means any liquid "waste" as used above, whether treated or not. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 342D-1
(b) Except as provided in subsection (g) or § 342D-111, a person shall not discharge wastewater from a commercial passenger vessel into the marine waters of the State that has suspended solids greater than one hundred milligrams per liter or a fecal coliform count greater than forty colonies per one hundred milliliters except that the department, by rule, may adopt a protocol for retesting for fecal coliform, if this discharge limit for fecal coliform is exceeded, under which a discharger will be considered to be in compliance with the fecal coliform limit if the geometric mean of fecal coliform count in the samples considered under the protocol does not exceed forty colonies per one hundred milliliters. Upon submission by the owner or operator of a large commercial passenger vessel of a plan for interim protective measures, the department shall extend the time for compliance of that vessel with this subsection for a period of time that ends not later than December 31, 2006. Upon submission by the owner or operator of a small commercial passenger vessel of a plan for interim protective measures, the department shall extend the time for compliance of that vessel with this subsection.
(c) The department, by rule, may establish numeric or narrative standards for other parameters for wastewater discharged from commercial passenger vessels that are more stringent than the effluent limitation standards and processing requirements of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, as amended, and regulations adopted under the same. In adopting rules under this subsection, the department shall consider the best available scientific information on the environmental effects of the regulated discharges, the materials and substances handled on the vessels, vessel movement effects, and the availability of new technologies for wastewater.
(d) Except as provided in subsections (f) and (g) or § 342D-111, a person shall not discharge wastewater from a large commercial passenger vessel into the marine waters of the State unless:

(1) The vessel is underway and proceeding at a speed of not less than six knots;
(2) The vessel is at least one nautical mile from the nearest shore, except in areas designated by the department;
(3) The discharge complies with all applicable vessel effluent standards established under federal and state law; provided that the standards established under federal law may be adopted by rule by the department; and
(4) The vessel is not in an area where the discharge of wastewater is prohibited.
(e) Except as provided in subsection (g) or § 342D-111, a person may not discharge sewage from a small commercial passenger vessel unless the sewage has been processed through a properly operated and properly maintained marine sanitation device.
(f) Subsection (d)(1) and (2) do not apply to a discharge permitted under federal law.
(g) Subsections (a) to (e) do not apply to discharges made for the purpose of securing the safety of the commercial passenger vessel or saving life at sea if all reasonable precautions have been taken for the purpose of preventing or minimizing the discharge.

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