(a) The department shall administer all funds made available to the department by legislative appropriation or by funds made available by the Division of Highways, as well as federal, state or private grants for remediation of waste tire piles and for the proper disposal of waste tires removed from waste tire piles.
(b) All authority to promulgate legislative rules necessary to implement the provisions of this article is hereby transferred from the Division of Highways to the Secretary of the Department of Environmental Protection as of the effective date of enactment of this section and article during the 2005 of the Legislature. Any legislative rules promulgated by the Commissioner of the Division of Highways in furtherance of the waste tire remediation program established in former article twenty-four, chapter seventeen of this code shall remain in force and effect as if promulgated by the secretary until they are amended in accordance with the provisions of article three, chapter twenty-nine-a of this code.
(c) The secretary also has the following powers:
(1) To apply and carry out the provisions of this article and the rules promulgated under this article.