(a)  This article shall be known, and may be cited, as the Hazardous Waste Treatment Reform Act of 1995.

(b)  It is the intent of the Legislature, in enacting this article, to adopt reasonable and realistic methods for addressing the environmental risks associated with land disposal of hazardous waste and to encourage the treatment of hazardous waste to remove or reduce hazards to human health and the environment. However, it is not the Legislature’s intent to impose hazardous waste management requirements upon hazardous waste generators and hazardous waste storage, treatment, and disposal facilities located within the state which could, if so imposed, encourage illegal disposal practices or force California generators to seek hazardous waste disposal solutions in other states or countries, thereby shifting the state’s hazardous waste treatment and disposal burdens to other jurisdictions.

(c)  The Legislature hereby finds and declares the following:

(1)  The hazardous waste treatment industry is important to California’s economy and future environmental protection.

(2)  Treatment of hazardous waste, the generation of which cannot otherwise be prevented through waste minimization and recycling of hazardous constituents, is preferable to disposal of that waste by means of incineration or land disposal without treatment.

(3)  To improve California’s economic and environmental well-being, the development and implementation of new hazardous waste treatment technologies in California that reduce or eliminate the hazards to human health and the environment of hazardous waste generated in California should be encouraged where these technologies can be practically utilized in California to substantially reduce or eliminate these hazards.

(Repealed and added by Stats. 1995, Ch. 638, Sec. 15. Effective January 1, 1996.)