In addition to all other powers, duties, responsibilities and authority granted and assigned to the director in this code and elsewhere described by law, the director is empowered as follows:
(a) The director shall promulgate rules in compliance with the West Virginia administrative procedures act to carry out the provisions of this article including modifying any existing rules and establishing permit application fees up to an amount sufficient to defray the costs of permit review. In promulgating rules the director shall consider and establish requirements based on the quantity of solid waste to be handled, including different requirements for solid waste facilities or approved solid waste facilities which handle more than one hundred tons of solid waste per day, the environmental impact of solid waste disposal, the nature, source or characteristics of the solid waste, potential for contamination of ground, surface and potable waters, requirements for public roadway standards and design for access to the facilities with approval by the commissioner of the Division of Highways, the financial capability of the applicant, soil and geological considerations, environmental and other natural resource considerations.
(b) The director, after public notice and opportunity for public hearing near the affected community, may issue a permit with reasonable terms and conditions for installation, establishment, modification, operation or closure of a solid waste facility: Provided, That the director may deny the issuance of a permit on the basis of information in the application or from other sources including public comment, if the solid waste facility is likely to cause adverse impacts on the environment. The director may also prohibit the installation or establishment of specific types and sizes of solid waste facilities in a specified geographical area of the state based on the above-cited factor and may delete such geographical area from consideration for that type and size solid waste facility.
(c) The director may refuse to grant any permit if he or she has reasonable cause to believe, as indicated by documented evidence, that the applicant, or any officer, director or manager, thereof, or person owning a five percent or more interest, beneficial or otherwise, or other person conducting or managing the affairs of the applicant or of the proposed licensed premises, in whole or in part:
(1) Has demonstrated, either by his or her police record or by his or her record as a permittee under articles eleven through nineteen of this chapter or chapter twenty of this code, a lack of respect for law and order, generally, or for the laws and rules governing the disposal of solid wastes;