HRS §6E-43.6 (Inadvertent Discovery)
HRS §6E-43.6 is Hawaiʻi's inadvertent-discovery law. It sets out what must happen when human skeletal remains are encountered unexpectedly during a project — most often during excavation. Work in the vicinity stops, and the discovery is reported to the authorities and SHPD.
The statute requires that, on an inadvertent discovery, ground-disturbing work in the area cease and the appropriate authorities be notified so the remains can be protected and the proper consultation can occur. Handling of the remains then proceeds under the state's burial-site framework rather than at the discretion of the project.
Inadvertent discoveries are documented across Hawaiʻi, and they are most consequential where excavation reaches into sensitive substrate. Because the requirement is a hard stop-work, a discovery mid-construction can be far costlier — in time and cost — than the same finding surfaced during due diligence.
The value of screening a parcel before you dig is precisely to reduce the odds of a §6E-43.6 stop-work catching a project by surprise. KILO's cultural-resource read is a screening layer that flags where closer review is warranted — it does not, and by policy will not, map or localize burial sites.
Under HRS §6E-43.6, stop ground-disturbing work in the vicinity and notify the appropriate authorities and SHPD. The remains are then handled through the state's burial-site consultation process, not by the project.
No. By a strict burial-data policy, KILO does not ingest, aggregate, or surface any data that localizes ancestral remains. It returns a screening-level sensitivity read, never a map of where sites are.
This is a plain-language reference, not legal advice. KILO is a pre-development screening tool, not a system of record — confirm any determination with the agency of jurisdiction.