HEER Office Statutes and Rules

This page provides access to Hawai‘i Revised Statutes (HRS) and Hawai‘i Administrative Rules (HAR) that are implemented and administered by the HEER Office.  For more information on HEER Office Legal Authorities, visit Section 1.1 of the online Technical Guidance Manual.

Statutes

The HRS are housed at the Hawai‘i State Legislature website. 

• HRS 128D Hawai‘i Environmental Response Law (HERL) — Effective in 1990, this statute establishes authority for the HEER Office to respond to releases of hazardous substances.  It is fashioned after the 1980 Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation & Liability Act (CERCLA), commonly known as the Federal Superfund Law.
• HRS 128E Hawai‘i Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (HEPCRA) — This statute establishes planning, reporting, emergency notification, and public information access requirements related to hazardous chemicals.  HEPCRA is modeled after the federal Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA).  The act also created the Hawai‘i State Emergency Response Commission (HSERC), established within the HDOH, as well as Local Emergency Planning Committees (LEPC) located in each county of Hawai‘i to implement emergency response planning and related actions.  Visit the Right-to-Know section of this website for more information.
• HRS 508C Uniform Environmental Covenants Act — Enacted in July 2006, this statue provides a regulatory mechanism for recording “institutional controls” on the official land records of a contaminated property.  Institutional controls are used in situations where it is not feasible or necessary to remove all contamination from a property.  UECA is not limited to use by the HDOH and any two parties can enter into a UECA.

Rules

The HAR are housed at the Hawai‘i Lieutenant Governor’s website.

• HAR 11-5 Environmentally-Related Illness and Injury Reporting - Prepared to provide the requirements for health care professionals and laboratory directors to report to the department, the diagnosis of any person afflicted with a designated environmentally-related illness or injury. Visit Pesticide and Heavy Metal Poisoning to learn more about these reportable conditions.
• HAR 11-451 Hawai‘i State Contingency Plan (SCP) — Prepared to provide the procedures by which the HDOH responds to hazardous substance releases under HRS 128D HERL (described above).  These state administrative rules are based upon the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) CERCLA-related administrative rules called the National Contingency Plan (NCP).
• HAR 11-452 Requirements for the Decontamination and Cleanup of Methamphetamine Manufacturing Sites — Developed in response to Act 170 which was passed in 2006 and which directed the HDOH to establish permanent rules for the cleanup and decontamination of illegal drug manufacturing sites.  In addition, the HEER Office developed technical guidance for the cleanup of these sites.  More information on the guidance and cleanup program can be found under the Technical Guidance section of this website.
• HAR 11-453 Hawai‘i Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (HEPCRA) — Prepared to better implement and improve compliance with requirements of HRS 128E HEPCRA (described above).  Visit the Right-to-Know (HEPCRA) Compliance page for more information.

Office of Hazard Evaluation and Emergency Response
State of Hawai‘i Department of Health
919 Ala Moana Boulevard, Room 206
Honolulu, HI 96814

Telephone:	(808) 586-4249
Fax:	(808) 586-7537

Webpage maintained by Marsha Mealey
Last Update 05 Dec 2011