§22-18-2. Declaration of policy.

(a) The Legislature finds that:

(1) Continuing technological progress and increases in the amount of manufacture and the abatement of air and water pollution have resulted in ever increasing quantities of hazardous wastes;

(2) The public health and safety and the environment are threatened where hazardous wastes are not managed in an environmentally sound manner;

(3) The knowledge and technology necessary for alleviating adverse health, environmental and aesthetic impacts resulting from current hazardous waste management and disposal practices are generally available;

(4) The manufacture, refinement, processing, treatment and use of coal, raw chemicals, ores, petroleum, gas and other natural and synthetic products are activities that make a significant contribution to the economy of this state; and

(5) The problem of managing hazardous wastes has become a matter of statewide concern.

(b) Therefore, it is hereby declared that the purposes of this article are:

(1) To protect the public health and safety and the environment from the effects of the improper, inadequate or unsound management of hazardous wastes;

(2) To establish a program of regulation over the storage, transportation, treatment and disposal of hazardous wastes;

(3) To assure the safe and adequate management of hazardous wastes within this state; and

(4) To assume regulatory primacy through Subtitle C of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act.