Washington, D.C. - Two Senate bills introduced by Senator Daniel K. Akaka (D-HI) have each cleared the United States Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources today. One bill will help the State of Hawaii to address the demand on our freshwater supply, especially on the islands of Oahu, Maui, and Hawaii. The other bill provides a uniform code to protect fossils on federal lands.

"I am pleased the Energy Committee acted quickly to send these bills to the Senate floor," said Senator Akaka. "The importance of preserving and protecting our natural and fossil resources, as recognized by S. 263, is one that I fully understand from growing up in Hawaii. Water is one of our most precious resources and these projects in S. 264 will reduce Hawaii's dependency on potable water."

The Paleontological Resources Preservation Act, S. 263, will help reduce the number of fossils that disappear from federal lands -- fossils that rightfully belong to the public, help us understand the conditions of past geological epochs and inspire generations of the future. The "Fossil Bill" codifies the regulations that most land management agencies have in a patchwork manner in their internal codes.

S. 264, the Hawaii Water Resources Act for 2005, authorizes federal participation in the design, planning, and construction of three water reclamation projects. The first project, in Honolulu, will provide reliable potable water through resource diversification to meet existing and future demands, particularly in the Ewa area of Oahu where water demands are outpacing the availability of drinking water. The second project, in North Kona, will address the issue of effluent being discharged into a temporary disposal dump from the Kealakehe Wastewater Treatment Plant. The project would utilize subsurface wetlands to naturally clean the effluent and convey the recycled water to a number of users. The third project, in Lahaina, will reduce the use of potable water by extending the County of Maui's main recycled water pipeline.