Hawaii families may soon be able to bury loved ones in the old Hawaiian way.

State lawmakers have advanced a bill to the brink of potential passage in an effort to allow burials that are consistent with the Hawaiian cultural tradition of interring only the bones of the dearly departed.

The measure, Senate Bill 1021, is being considered for final passage by members of a House-Senate conference committee charged with ironing out differences between two versions of the bill passed by the full House and Senate.

If the bill becomes law, it would reintroduce a burial practice that hasn’t been in ordinary use for over a century in Hawaii.

“The time has finally come!” Kawehionapua Correa, president of Aloha Mortuary, declared recently in written testimony on the bill, which has drawn strong backing from Hawaiian civic clubs, cultural practitioners, the state Office of Hawaiian Affairs and others.

However, staunch opposition from the biggest funeral service businesses in the state could affect a final decision on the bill, where scuttling can be done out of public view during closed-door negotiations.

SB 1021 would direct the state Department of Health to adopt rules that permit traditional Hawaiian burial practices.

Lawmakers made an effort to allow the practice in 2015 when they passed a bill that amended state law so that something consistent with the Hawaiian tradition of preparing a body for burial — historically by steaming it in an earthen oven, or imu, to yield clean bones — would not constitute abuse of a corpse.

The preexisting law broadly stated that treating a human corpse in a way that would knowingly outrage “ordinary family sensibilities” constituted abuse.

Yet the 2015 change didn’t prompt resumption of so-called Hawaiian-style burials because using traditional methods would be difficult to do. Also, commercial services to render intact bones from human remains aren’t available in Hawaii.

The pending bill states that technology for this can be done by alkaline hydrolysis, sometimes called “water cremation,” which uses water, heat, pressure, alkaline chemicals and agitation.

Some bill supporters, including Hilo physician Dr. Alin Ledford, said hydrolysis is used in Hawaii by veterinarians and is more environmentally friendly than regular cremation or burying whole bodies.

“It is a green form of taking care of our loved ones who have passed,” Ledford, who is Hawaiian, said in written testimony. “For Hawaiians, this means that our loved one’s bones can then be given back to us Native Hawaiians so that we can care for them in our traditional way.”

Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu, a teacher and Hawaiian cultural practitioner, said Hawaiians have tried for many years to facilitate culturally appropriate burials, including efforts in 2012 and 2015 initiated by Hawaiian civic clubs. SB 1021, if passed, is expected to achieve that goal.

“Hawaiians have not been able to engage in this practice for generations, but now with the advent of new and clean technology, we can once again follow our traditions and return our iwi kupuna (bones of ancestors) to the aina in a culturally appropriate way that is clean, sterile and safe,” Wong-Kalu said in written testimony.

Lining up against the bill for the most part is the funeral industry.

One major point of contention is that an initial form of the bill passed by the Senate included language to force cemeteries to allow up to 10 burials in a single plot or crypt instead of just one or two.

The provision was deleted in an amended draft approved by the House. But the local funeral industry also doesn’t support alkaline hydrolysis.

Jay Morford, president of the Hawaii Funeral and Cemetery Association, testified that the trade group believes insufficient information exists to support it.

Morford raised concerns with the technology over negative effects on the environment, including water use and water discharge.

“HFCA is in strong support with all cultural traditions and providing people choices of disposition,” he said in written testimony. “However, we have concerns as to whether this is a cleaner or more environmentally friendly process and believe those concerns should be studied prior to enactment.”

Morford is the top executive of Hawaiian Memorial Park in Kaneohe and crematorium operator Borthwick Mortuary in Honolulu.

Other opponents testifying include Mililani Memorial Park, Dodo Mortuary, Nuuanu Memorial Park, Leeward Funeral Home and Hosoi Garden Mortuary.

Some bill supporters suggest the industry is only trying to shield itself from competition by raising concerns over alkaline hydrolysis.

Steven Labrash, a licensed funeral director who runs the willed body program at the University of Hawaii John A. Burns School of Medicine, said in written testimony that he was saddened to see corporate opposition to what he called an environmentally friendly technology.

“The corporations’ position is reminiscent of the opposition the funeral industry had when the first public crematories were brought into existence over 100 years ago,” Labrash said. “When I was studying the history of funeral service, it was apparent that the opposition from the funeral industry to cremation was based on finances and not what was best for the community. They routinely vilified the technology, playing on the fears of the families and church to successfully hold off its wide acceptance for several decades.”

Dean Fisher, a recently retired director of the willed body program at the University of California, Los Angeles, told lawmakers in written testimony that he helped pioneer alkaline hydrolysis at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota 15 years ago and that 20 states have passed legislation supporting it.

Fisher, who owns two alkaline hydrolysis machines in use at funeral homes in Los Angeles and Minneapolis-St. Paul, said the water left over from the process is sterile and poses no issue for wastewater treatment plants.

Hawaii’s Health Department, which regulates the funeral industry and wastewater discharge, didn’t testify on the bill but said in a statement that it foresees no threat to human health from what the bill would allow.

Ken Ordenstein, a sixth-generation Hawaii funeral business operator and a former Hawaii Funeral Directors’ Association president, believes alkaline hydrolysis should be allowed.

“This technology gives us the means to fulfill the promise of the bill the governor signed over five years ago,” he said in written testimony. “In addition, it provides a clean, and green choice to care for our dead whether Hawaiian or not.”