(a) Whenever any hazardous substance is released or there is a substantial threat of such a release into the environment, or there is a release or substantial threat of such release into the environment of any pollutant or contaminant that may present a substantial danger to the public health, welfare, or the environment, the director is authorized to act, consistent with the state contingency plan, to remove or arrange for the removal of, and provide for remedial action relating to such hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant at any time, including its removal from any contaminated natural resources, or take any other response measure consistent with the state contingency plan which the director deems necessary to protect the public health or welfare or the environment. The director may:

Terms Used In Hawaii Revised Statutes 128D-4

  • CERCLA: means the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980, P. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 128D-1
  • Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
  • 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
  • Fund: means the environmental response revolving fund. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 128D-1
  • Hazardous substance: includes any substance designated pursuant to section 311(b)(2)(A) of the Clean Water Act; any element, compound, mixture, solution, or substance designated pursuant to section 102 of CERCLA; any hazardous waste having the characteristics identified under or listed pursuant to section 3001 of the Solid Waste Disposal Act; any toxic pollutant listed under section 307(a) of the Clean Water Act; any hazardous air pollutant listed under section 112 of the Clean Air Act, as amended (42 U. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 128D-1
  • Natural resources: means land, fish, wildlife, biota, air, water, ground water, drinking water supplies, and other such resources belonging to, managed by, held in trust by, appertaining to, or otherwise controlled by the State of Hawaii, any county, or by the United States to the extent that the latter are subject to state law. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 128D-1
  • Person: means any individual, firm, corporation, association, partnership, consortium, joint venture, commercial entity, state, county, commission, political subdivision of the State, or, to the extent they are subject to this chapter, the United States or any interstate body. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 128D-1
  • Pollutant or contaminant: means any element, substance, compound, or mixture, which after release into the environment and upon exposure, ingestion, inhalation, or assimilation into any organism either directly from the environment or indirectly by ingestion through food chains, will or may reasonably be anticipated to cause death, disease, behavioral abnormalities, cancer, genetic mutation, physiological malfunctions (including malfunctions in reproduction) or physical deformations, in such organisms or their offspring. 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
  • response: means remove, removal, remedy, or remedial action; and all such terms include government enforcement activities related thereto. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 128D-1
  • Settlement: Parties to a lawsuit resolve their difference without having a trial. Settlements often involve the payment of compensation by one party in satisfaction of the other party's claims.
  • Vessel: means every description of watercraft or other artificial contrivance used, or capable of being used, as a means of transportation on water. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 128D-1
(1) Issue an administrative order or conduct any other enforcement or compliance activities necessary to compel any known responsible party or parties to take appropriate removal or remedial action necessary to protect the public health and safety and the environment;
(2) Upon determining that there may be an imminent and substantial endangerment to the public health or welfare or the environment because of an actual or threatened release of a hazardous substance, issue without a hearing, such orders as may be necessary to protect the public health, welfare, and the environment;
(3) Solicit the cooperation of responsible parties prior to issuing an order to encourage voluntary cleanup efforts; and, if necessary, negotiate enforcement agreements with responsible parties to conduct needed response actions according to deadlines established in compliance orders or settlement agreements;
(4) Undertake those investigations, monitoring, surveys, testing, sampling, and other information gathering necessary to identify the existence, source, nature, and extent of the hazardous substances or pollutants or contaminants involved and the extent of danger to the public health or welfare or to the environment;
(5) Perform any necessary removal or remedial actions so as to abate any immediate danger to the public health or welfare or to the environment; and
(6) Contract the services of appropriate organizations to perform the actions set forth in paragraphs (1), (2), (3), (4), and (5).
(b) For the purposes of determining or investigating an actual release or a suspected release, or choosing or taking any response action, or conducting any study, or enforcing this chapter, any person who has or may have information relevant to any of the following, upon the reasonable and necessary request of any duly authorized representative of the department, shall furnish information or documents in the person’s possession relating to such matter:

(1) The identification, nature, and quantity of hazardous substances or pollutants or contaminants which have been or are generated, treated, or stored or disposed of at a facility or vessel or transported to a facility or vessel.
(2) The nature and extent of a release or threatened release of a hazardous substance or pollutant or contaminant from a facility or vessel.
(3) Information relating to the ability of a person to pay for or perform the cleanup.

In addition, upon reasonable notice, such person shall grant any such authorized representative of the department access at all reasonable times to any facility, vessel, establishment, site, place, property, or location to inspect same and to review and copy all documents or records relating to such matters or shall copy and furnish the officer, employee, or representative of the department all such documents or records, at the option and expense of such person.

(c) Moneys in the fund may be expended by the director for any of the following purposes:

(1) Payment of all costs of removal or remedial actions incurred by the State or the counties in response to a release or threatened release of a hazardous substance or pollutant or contaminant; or
(2) Payment for the State’s share of a removal or remedial action pursuant to section 104(c)(3) of CERCLA;
(3) Payment of all costs incurred by the State in the restoration, rehabilitation, or replacement or acquisition of the equivalent of any natural resources injured, destroyed, or lost as a result of a release of a hazardous substance or pollutant or contaminant;
(4) Payment of all costs of response action for a release due to the legal application of a pesticide product registered under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act; or
(5) Payment of all costs or remedial action for any release permitted by any federal, state or local permit or other legal authority.
(d) No response actions taken pursuant to this chapter by the department shall duplicate federal response actions.
(e) The governor may raise the legislative ceiling established in the environmental response revolving fund if, in the governor’s determination, sufficient funds do not exist within the ceiling to conduct emergency response actions pursuant to this chapter.

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