SECTION 19B. Regulations

(a) The board shall adopt, and may from time to time amend and repeal, regulations as it deems necessary for the implementation, administration, and enforcement of sections nineteen through nineteen J, inclusive. Said regulations shall be adopted, amended, or repealed pursuant to section two of chapter thirty A and all other provisions of chapter thirty A governing the adoption, amendment, and repeal of regulations. Said regulations shall include, without limitation, requirements for education, training, experience, and references and standards for professional conduct. Said standards shall be sufficiently stringent so that all waste site cleanup activity opinions rendered by all individuals meeting such standards and licensed by the board shall be rendered so that they protect public health, safety, welfare, and the environment.

(b) Without limiting the generality or applicability of the foregoing, by no later than January first, nineteen hundred and ninety-three, the board shall promulgate, in accordance with section two of chapter thirty A, and shall submit to the state secretary for publication in the Massachusetts Register, in accordance with sections five and six of chapter thirty A, regulations establishing standards for education, training, experience, and references that must be met by all individuals in order to thereafter be eligible to be licensed by the board as a hazardous waste site cleanup professional. By no later than January first, nineteen hundred and ninety-three, the board shall submit to the state secretary for publication in the Massachusetts Register, and the state secretary shall publish in the Massachusetts Register, in accordance with sections five and six of chapter thirty A, the notice required by section two of chapter thirty A and a draft of the regulations described in the preceding sentence.

Upon written request from an individual licensed by the board as a hazardous waste site cleanup professional, the board may render an advisory opinion interpreting one or more regulations promulgated by the board establishing standards for professional conduct. An opinion rendered by the board, until and unless amended or revoked, shall be a defense in a criminal action brought under sections nineteen through nineteen J, inclusive, and shall be binding on the board in any subsequent proceedings concerning the individual who requested the opinion and acted in good faith in reliance thereon, unless material facts were omitted or misstated by the individual in the request for an opinion. Such requests shall be confidential; provided, however, that the board may publish such opinions, but the name of the requesting individual and other identifying information shall not be included in such publication unless the requesting individual consents to such inclusion.

Notwithstanding any other general or special law to the contrary, no licensed hazardous waste site cleanup professional shall be liable to any other person for making any disclosure in good faith if such disclosure is required pursuant to any law or to any regulation or order of the board or of the department or of any agency of the United States, or of the commonwealth, or of any city or town or other body politic, or pursuant to any court order or judicial process.