Kauai County weighs $1,000-an-hour search and rescue fees

Kaua‘i County lawmakers advanced a bill that could shift the cost of search and rescue onto people whose actions led to the emergency, with charges reaching $1,000 an hour. The proposal immediately raised the question of whether hikers, boaters and tourists would hesitate before calling for help when minutes matter most.

Bill 2910 was introduced Oct. 18, 2023 by councilmembers Addison Bulosan and Bill DeCosta and was meant to tighten Kaua‘i County’s rescue-reimbursement rules. The measure would amend Chapter 6, Article 13 of the Kaua‘i County Code so it more closely matched Hawai‘i Revised Statutes Chapter 137, the state Search and Rescue Reimbursement Act. It would also limit automatic Office of the County Attorney involvement to incidents involving at least $1,000 in rescue expenses and create a Search and Rescue and Wildfire Response Donations Account for voluntary contributions.

At a public hearing Nov. 15, 2023 at 8:30 a.m. in Līhu‘e, no one testified orally or in writing. The Kaua‘i County Parks & Recreation / Transportation Committee approved the bill on Nov. 22, and the full Kaua‘i County Council approved it Dec. 6.

The policy question behind the bill was not whether rescues cost money. It was who should pay when an emergency grows expensive. Supporters argued the county should recover costs from people who ignore warning signs or put responders at risk. Opponents warned that a fee structure tied to helicopter time and other emergency expenses could discourage distressed hikers, swimmers or boaters from seeking help in time.

That concern was sharpened by the scale of rescue operations on Kaua‘i. In February 2022, The Garden Island reported that the Kaua‘i Fire Department responded to 13 land rescues and deployed its helicopter nine times. More recent reporting placed the county’s fire helicopter at about $1,500 an hour to fly, underscoring why rescue reimbursement remains a recurring issue across Hawai‘i.

Under Hawai‘i law, reimbursement is allowed only when the need for search or rescue was caused by intentional disregard for personal safety, including ignoring a warning or notice. Kaua‘i already had a rescue-expense recovery law before Bill 2910, but the 2023 proposal was designed to make enforcement easier and bring county practice closer to state law. The result was a familiar Hawai‘i tradeoff: protecting public safety teams and county budgets without making ordinary emergencies feel like a financial trap.