(A) If the legislative or executive authority of a municipal corporation, county, or township has evidence to indicate that locations within its boundaries once served as hazardous waste facilities or that significant quantities of hazardous waste were disposed of in solid waste or construction and demolition debris facilities within its boundaries, it may file a formal written request with the director of environmental protection, accompanied by supporting evidence, to survey the locations or facilities.

Upon receipt of a request and a review of the evidence submitted with the request, the director shall conduct an investigation to determine if hazardous waste was actually treated, stored, or disposed of at the locations or facilities and, if so, to determine the nature and approximate quantity and types of the waste treated, stored, or disposed of at the particular locations or facilities. In addition, the director shall determine whether the locations or facilities, because of their present condition and the nature and quantities of waste treated, stored, or disposed of therein, result or are likely to result in air pollution, pollution of the waters of the state, or soil contamination or constitute a present or imminent and substantial threat to public health or safety. The director shall report the findings of the investigation to the municipal corporation, county, or township requesting the survey.

For the purpose of conducting investigations under this section, the director or the director’s authorized representative may enter upon any public or private property. The director or the director’s authorized representative may apply for, and any judge of a court of common pleas shall issue, an appropriate search warrant necessary to achieve the purposes of this section within the court’s territorial jurisdiction. When conducting investigations under this section, the director shall cause no unnecessary damage to any property. The director may expend moneys from the hazardous waste facility management fund created in section 3734.18 of the Revised Code, the hazardous waste clean-up fund created in section 3734.28 of the Revised Code, or the environmental protection remediation fund created in section 3734.281 of the Revised Code for conducting investigations.

(B) As used in this section and in sections 3734.20, 3734.21, 3734.23, 3734.25, and 3734.26 of the Revised Code, “soil contamination” means the presence in or on the soil of any o f the following:

(1) Hazardous waste or hazardous waste residue resulting from the discharge, deposit, injection, dumping, spilling, leaking, emitting, or placing into or on the soil of hazardous waste or hazardous waste residue, or any material that when discharged, deposited, injected, dumped, spilled, leaked, emitted, or placed into or on the soil becomes a hazardous waste, in any quantity or having any characteristics that are or threaten to be injurious to public health or safety, plant or animal life, or the environment or that unreasonably interfere with the comfortable enjoyment of life or property ;

(2) Solid waste or construction and demolition debris or any constituents from disposed solid waste o r construction and demolition debris that pose a substantial threat to public health, safety, or the environment.