(a) The department may establish an administrative process to certify hazardous waste environmental technologies that it determines will not pose a significant potential hazard to human health and safety or to the environment if they are used under specified operating conditions. Hazardous waste environmental technologies which may be certified shall include, but are not limited to, hazardous waste management technologies, site mitigation technologies, and waste minimization and pollution prevention technologies. The certification process shall not be used for hazardous waste incineration technologies. The certification shall include all of the following:
(1) A statement of the technical specifications applicable to the technology.
(2) A determination of the composition of the hazardous wastes or chemical constituents for which the technology can appropriately be used.
(3) An estimate of the efficacy and efficiency of the technology in regard to the hazardous wastes or chemical constituents for which it is certified.
(4) A specification of the minimal operational standards the technology is required to meet to ensure that the certified technology is managed properly and used safely.
(b) An applicant for certification of a hazardous waste environmental technology shall provide the department with any information required by the department to make a determination on the application for certification.
(c) The department’s proposed decision on an application for certification of a hazardous waste environmental technology shall be published in the California Regulatory Notice Register and shall be subject to a 30-day comment period. The department’s final decision on an application for certification of a hazardous waste environmental technology shall become effective not sooner than 30 days from the date of publication of the final decision in the California Regulatory Notice Register.
(d) The department may decertify a hazardous waste environmental technology if it determines, on the basis of any information, that the hazardous waste environmental technology may pose a significant potential hazard to human health and safety or to the environment. The department may decertify a hazardous waste environmental technology in accordance with the procedure set forth in subdivision (c).
(e) The department’s decision on an application for certification under this section is exempt from the requirements of Chapter 3.5 (commencing with Section 11340), Chapter 4 (commencing with Section 11370), and Chapter 5 (commencing with Section 11500) of Part 1 of Division 3 of Title 2 of the Government Code, and shall not be subject to the review and approval of the Office of Administrative Law.
(f) Based on the determination made by the department pursuant to subdivision (a), other local and state government permitting authorities may take this certification process into consideration when making their permitting decisions.
(g) (1) The department shall place appropriate conditions on any certification granted pursuant to this section. Those conditions may include, but are not limited to, all of the following:
(A) Limits on the types, volume, and concentration of waste streams that may be employed with the technology.
(B) Operating requirements.
(C) Monitoring requirements.
(2) Any technology certified by the department pursuant to this section may be eligible for authorization pursuant to permit-by-rule or conditional authorization pursuant to Section 25200.3, or conditional exemption pursuant to Section 25201.5, only if the department determines that the use of that technology to handle the waste stream or streams is demonstrated to be as safe and as effective as the processes that are subject to regulation pursuant to permit-by-rule or conditional authorization pursuant to Section 25200.3 or conditional exemption pursuant to Section 25201.5. A certified technology determined to be eligible for authorization pursuant to permit-by-rule shall, in addition to any conditions placed on the certification pursuant to paragraph (1), operate in accordance with all conditions of the certification and permit-by-rule.
(3) In determining the placement of a technology certified pursuant to this section for operation pursuant to permit-by-rule or pursuant to a grant of conditional authorization under Section 25200.3 or conditional exemption under Section 25201.5, the department shall, to the extent information is available, consider all the following factors in making its determination:
(A) The hazardous waste streams that are treated using the treatment methods and the hazards to human health and safety or the environment posed by those hazardous wastes and their hazardous constituents.
(B) The complexity of the treatment method, the degree of difficulty in carrying it out, and the technology that is used to carry it out.
(C) Chemical or physical hazards that are associated with the use of the treatment process and the degree to which these hazards are similar to, or differ from, the chemical or physical hazards that are associated with the production processes that are carried out in the facilities that produce the hazardous waste that is treated using the treatment methods.
(D) The levels of specialized operator training, equipment maintenance, and monitoring that are required to ensure the safety of the treatment method and its effectiveness in treating particular hazardous waste streams.
(E) The types of accidents that may occur during the treatment of particular types of hazardous waste streams, the likely consequences of those accidents, and the actual accident history associated with use of the treatment method.
(h) The department shall charge fees to review and certify environmental technologies pursuant to this section that are sufficient to recover the actual costs of the department in reviewing and approving the technology.
(i) The department shall implement a program to continually monitor and oversee manufacturers and users of technologies certified pursuant to this section, to ensure that the certified technologies are operating in a manner which is not hazardous to human health and safety or to the environment.
(j) The department shall adopt regulations to implement the certification process.
(Amended by Stats. 1996, Ch. 999, Sec. 5. Effective January 1, 1997.)