Section 25199 Of Article 8.7. Procedures For The Approval Of New Facilities From California Health And Safety Code >> Division 20. >> Chapter 6.5. >> Article 8.7.
25199
. (a) The Legislature finds and declares as follows:
(1) Existing laws require numerous permits before a hazardous
waste facility can be constructed and operated. The permits are
issued by governmental agencies, at both the state and local levels
under land use planning, zoning, hazardous waste, air quality, water
quality, and solid waste management laws.
(2) The approval of hazardous waste facilities is not currently a
coordinated process. The failure to coordinate the issuance of
multiple permits, licenses, land use approvals, and other types of
authorizations causes lengthy and costly delays. The end result of
the process cannot be predicted, with any degree of certainty, by
either the proponent of a project to site and construct a facility or
by the concerned public.
(3) Present procedures for approving hazardous waste facilities do
not provide meaningful opportunities for public involvement and are
not suitably structured to allow the public to make its concerns
known and to cause these concerns to be taken into consideration.
(4) A formal administrative process for reviewing local
discretionary land use decisions on applications to site and
construct a hazardous waste facility has not been established and
made available to interested persons who wish to appeal these
decisions.
(b) The Legislature, therefore, declares that there is a critical
need to clarify the requirements that must be met, and the basic
procedures that must be followed, in connection with the approval of
hazardous waste facilities.
(c) It is the intent of the Legislature, in enacting this article,
to establish the means to expedite the approval of needed hazardous
waste facilities; to ensure that new hazardous waste facilities are
not sited unless the facility operator provides financial assurance
that the operator can respond adequately to damage claims arising out
of the operation of the facility; to ensure that the facilities
comply with applicable laws and regulations; to clarify the
procedures to be followed in approving a facility; to establish
specific means to give the concerned public a voice in decisions
relating to the siting and issuance of permits for hazardous waste
facilities; and to establish a process for appealing local decisions
on applications for land use approval for hazardous waste facilities.