Section 25159.10 Of Article 5.6. The Toxic Injection Well Control Act Of 1985 From California Health And Safety Code >> Division 20. >> Chapter 6.5. >> Article 5.6.
25159.10
. The Legislature hereby finds and declares all of the
following:
(a) Specific state laws and regulations have been enacted to
prevent leaks and hazardous waste discharges to land, such as those
from underground storage tanks, surface impoundments, pits, ponds, or
lagoons.
(b) The present federal law which regulates the discharge of
hazardous waste to land in injection wells is inadequate to fully
protect California's water supplies from contamination. As a result,
underground injection of hazardous waste presents a serious
short-term and long-term threat to the quality of waters in the
state.
(c) State-of-the-art design and operation safeguards of injection
wells without adequate groundwater monitoring, specific geological
information, and other system safeguards cannot guarantee that
migration of hazardous wastes into underground sources of drinking
water will not occur.
(d) Monitoring requirements specified in federal law are not
adequate to detect all leaks from injection wells and there are no
requirements in federal law for monitoring the movement of wastes in
the substrata to ensure that wastes have not escaped the injection
zone or are not reacting with, or have not breached the confining
strata.
(e) Injecting wastes into wells deep in the geological substrata
is an unproven method for the containment of wastes because, among
other things, hazardous wastes can react with geological substrata,
rendering these containment barriers ineffective, pressure of the
injected wastes can breach containment layers, and active or
abandoned wells in the vicinity of waste injection can serve as a
conduit for the wastes to migrate to drinking water supplies.
(f) Restoring contaminated groundwater to its original state after
the fact and removal or cleanup of wastes once injected to these
depths are formidable tasks which are not typically economically
feasible.
(g) It is in the public interest to establish a continuing program
for the purpose of preventing contamination from underground
injection of waste. It is the intent of the Legislature to prohibit
any injection of hazardous wastes into or above drinking water in the
state, and to prohibit any injection of hazardous waste below
drinking water in the state which is not properly permitted and
monitored so as to prevent hazardous wastes from migrating to
drinking water or otherwise endangering the environment of the state.
(h) It is the intent of the Legislature that the Legislature will
provide a process for the public and industry to appeal the actions
or inactions of the department under this article. However, the
specific process cannot be developed until the Legislature determines
the general organization of the department with regard to
administration of hazardous waste management programs.