(a) The Legislature finds that:

1. (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. (2) The public health and safety and the environment are threatened where hazardous wastes are not managed in an environmentally sound manner;
3. (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. (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. (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. (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. (2) To establish a program of regulation over the storage, transportation, treatment and disposal of hazardous wastes;
3. (3) To assure the safe and adequate management of hazardous wastes within this state; and
4. (4) To assume regulatory primacy through Subtitle C of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act.