As used in this article 60, unless the context
otherwise requires:
(1) And includes the word or and the use of the word or includes the
word and. The use of the plural includes the singular and the use of the singular
includes the plural.
(2) (a) Carbon dioxide flow line means a segment of pipe transferring
injection carbon dioxide between the wellhead of a class VI injection well and a
pipeline regulated by the pipeline and hazardous materials safety administration of
the United States department of transportation or the public utilities commission.
(b) Carbon dioxide flow line does not include pipelines regulated by the
pipeline and hazardous materials safety administration of the United States
department of transportation or the public utilities commission.
(3) Class VI injection well means a well drilled pursuant to a permit for a
class VI injection well issued under the federal Safe Drinking Water Act, 42 U.S.C.
sec. 300f et seq., as amended.
(4) Commission means the energy and carbon management commission
created in section 34-60-104.3 (1).
(5) Common source of supply is synonymous with pool as defined in this
section.
(6) (a) Correlative rights means that each owner and producer in a common
pool or source of supply of oil and gas must have an equal opportunity to obtain and
produce the owner's or producer's just and equitable share of the oil and gas
underlying the pool or source of supply.
(b) As used in section 34-60-141, correlative rights means that each owner
of a sequestration estate must have an equal opportunity to utilize the owner's just
and equitable share of the underlying geologic storage resource.
(7) (a) Cumulative impacts means the effects on public health and the
environment, including the impacts to air quality, water quality, climate, noise, odor,
wildlife, and biological resources, caused by the incremental impacts that a
proposed new or amended operation regulated by the commission pursuant to this
article 60 would have when added to the impacts from other past, present, and
reasonably foreseeable future development of any type on the impact area or on a
disproportionately impacted community.
(b) Cumulative impacts may include both adverse and beneficial
environmental impacts.
(c) This subsection (7) is effective on the effective date of the rules adopted
pursuant to section 34-60-106 (11)(d)(I).
(8) Disproportionately impacted community has the meaning set forth in
section 24-4-109 (2)(b)(II).
(9) Division of parks and wildlife means the division of parks and wildlife
identified in article 9 of title 33.
(10) Energy and carbon management operations means all operations
regulated by the commission.
(11) Energy and carbon management operator means any person that
exercises the right to control the conduct of energy and carbon management
operations.
(12) Exploration and production waste means those wastes that are
generated during the drilling of and production from oil and gas wells; during the
drilling of and production from wells for deep geothermal operations, as defined in
section 37-90.5-103 (3), regulated by the commission pursuant to article 90.5 of
title 37; or during primary field operations and that are exempt from regulation as
hazardous wastes under Subtitle C of the federal Resource Conservation and
Recovery Act of 1976, 42 U.S.C. secs. 6901 to 6934, as amended.
(13) Gas means all natural gases and all hydrocarbons not defined in this
section as oil.
(14) Geologic storage means the injection and underground sequestration
of injection carbon dioxide in a geologic storage resource pursuant to a valid class
VI permit issued pursuant to the federal Safe Drinking Water Act, 42 U.S.C. sec.
300f et seq., as amended.
(15) (a) Geologic storage facility means the specific part of a geologic
storage resource that is utilized for geologic storage, together with the well or
wells and all surface equipment and disturbances associated with the geologic
storage operations at the geologic storage location.
(b) Geologic storage facility does not include pipelines regulated by the
pipeline and hazardous materials safety administration of the United States
department of transportation or the public utilities commission.
(16) Geologic storage location means a definable area where a geologic
storage operator uses or intends to use the surface of the land in order to operate a
geologic storage facility.
(17) Geologic storage operations means activities performed for the
purpose of engaging in geologic storage in the state, including:
(a) The following activities related to the operation of a geologic storage
facility:
(I) Drilling test bores and monitoring wells;
(II) Siting;
(III) Installing and operating carbon dioxide flow lines;
(IV) Drilling;
(V) Deepening;
(VI) Recompleting;
(VII) Reworking; and
(VIII) Abandoning;
(b) Injecting injection carbon dioxide for the purpose of geologic storage;
(c) Any constructing, site preparing, or reclaiming activities associated with
the activities described in subsection (17)(a) or (17)(b) of this section; and
(d) Any other activities determined by the commission to be necessary to
protect and minimize adverse impacts associated with geologic storage to public
health, safety, welfare, the environment, and natural resources.
(18) Geologic storage operator means any person that exercises the right
to control the conduct of geologic storage operations.
(19) (a) Geologic storage resource means pore space necessary for
geologic storage.
(b) Geologic storage resource does not include an underground source of
drinking water, as defined in 40 CFR 144.3.
(20) Geologic storage unit means a unit of one or more geologic storage
resources or parts of a geologic storage resource established by the commission
pursuant to section 34-60-141.
(21) Geologic storage unit area means any geologic storage resource, or
part of a geologic storage resource, included in a geologic storage unit.
(22) Impact area means a defined geographic area or areas in which
operations regulated by the commission have the potential to contribute to
cumulative impacts. The commission shall determine the impact area for a
particular proposed operation based on the nature, intensity, and scope of the
operation in its proposed location and the geographic extent of potential impacts.
(23) Impacts to climate means the quantification of emissions of
greenhouse gases, as defined in section 25-7-140 (6), that occur from sources that
are controlled or owned by the energy and carbon management operator and from
reasonably foreseeable truck traffic, as well as reductions in greenhouse gas
emissions, associated with the proposed operation.
(24) Injection carbon dioxide means carbon dioxide, including its
derivatives and all mixtures, combinations, and phases, whether liquid, gaseous,
super-critical, or solid, and whether stripped, segregated, or divided from any other
fluid stream, including all incidental associated substances derived from the source
materials.
(25) Local government means a:
(a) Municipality or city and county within whose boundaries a surface
location for energy and carbon management operations is sited or proposed to be
sited; or
(b) County, if a surface location for energy and carbon management
operations is sited or proposed to be sited within the boundaries of the county but is
not located within a municipality or city and county.
(26) Minimize adverse impacts means, to the extent necessary and
reasonable to protect public health, safety, and welfare; the environment; and
wildlife resources, to:
(a) Avoid adverse impacts from energy and carbon management operations;
and
(b) Minimize and mitigate the extent and severity of those impacts that
cannot be avoided.
(27) Oil means crude petroleum oil and any other hydrocarbons, regardless
of gravities, that are produced at the well in liquid form by ordinary production
methods and that are not the result of condensation of gas before or after it leaves
the reservoir.
(28) Oil and gas facility means equipment or improvements used or
installed at an oil and gas location for the exploration, production, withdrawal,
treatment, or processing of crude oil, condensate, exploration and production
waste, or gas.
(29) Oil and gas location means a definable area where an oil and gas
operator has disturbed or intends to disturb the land surface in order to locate an
oil and gas facility.
(30) Oil and gas operations means exploration for oil and gas, including:
(a) The conduct of seismic operations and the drilling of test bores;
(b) The siting, drilling, deepening, recompletion, reworking, or abandonment
of an oil and gas well, underground injection well, or gas storage well;
(c) Production operations related to any well described in subsection (30)(b)
of this section, including the installation of flow lines and gathering systems;
(d) The generation, transportation, storage, treatment, or disposal of
exploration and production wastes; and
(e) Any construction, site preparation, or reclamation activities associated
with the operations described in this subsection (30).
(31) Operator means any person that exercises the right to control the
conduct of oil and gas operations.
(32) Owner means the person that has the right to drill into and produce
from a pool and to appropriate the oil or gas the person produces from the pool
either for the person or others or for the person and others, including the owner of a
well capable of producing oil or gas, or both.
(33) Parks and wildlife commission means the parks and wildlife
commission created in section 33-9-101.
(34) Permit means any permit, sundry notice, notice of intention, or other
approval, including any conditions of approval, that is granted, issued, or approved
by the commission.
(35) Person means any natural person, corporation, association,
partnership, receiver, trustee, executor, administrator, guardian, fiduciary, or other
representative of any kind and includes any department, agency, or instrumentality
of the state or any governmental subdivision of the department, agency, or
instrumentality of the state.
(36) Pool means an underground reservoir containing a common
accumulation of oil or gas, or both. Each zone of a general structure, which zone is
completely separated from any other zone in the structure, is covered by the word
pool as used in this article 60.
(37) Pore space means a cavity or void, whether natural or artificially
created, in a subsurface stratum.
(38) Producer means the owner of a well capable of producing oil or gas, or
both.
(39) Reasonably foreseeable future development means development that
has not yet been undertaken for which an applicable local, state, or federal agency
has received an application or issued a permit. Future development is reasonably
foreseeable only if information related to the permit is publicly available.
(40) Sequestration estate means a portion of a geologic storage resource.
(40.5) (a) Site closure means that an operator of a geologic storage facility
has demonstrated, in accordance with all rules of the commission, that:
(I) Geologic storage operations at the facility no longer pose a danger to
public health, safety, or welfare or to the environment, including underground
sources of drinking water and wildlife resources; and
(II) The operator has received approval from the commission for the facility
to be closed.
(b) Site closure requires that:
(I) All wells are plugged, equipment is removed, and land is reclaimed, unless
otherwise required for long-term stewardship and monitoring or as determined by
the director of the commission; and
(II) Monitoring equipment is installed if required by the post-injection site
care and site closure plan or by rules of the commission.
(41) Surface owner means any person owning all or part of the surface of
land upon which energy and carbon management operations are conducted, as
shown by the tax records of the county in which the tract of land is situated, or any
person with such rights under a recorded contract to purchase.
(42) Underground natural gas storage cavern means a facility that stored
natural gas in an underground cavern or abandoned mine on or before January 1,
2000. An underground natural gas storage cavern includes all surface or
subsurface rights and appurtenances associated with the underground injection,
storage, and withdrawal of natural gas but does not include any compressor
stations or pipeline facilities subject to regulation by the public utilities commission
or the United States department of transportation.
(43) Waste, as applied to gas:
(a) Includes the escape, blowing, or releasing, directly or indirectly into the
open air, of gas from wells productive of gas only, or gas in an excessive or
unreasonable amount from wells producing oil or both oil and gas; and the
production of gas in quantities or in such manner as unreasonably reduces reservoir
pressure or, subject to subsection (43)(b) of this section, unreasonably diminishes
the quantity of oil or gas that ultimately may be produced; excepting gas that is
reasonably necessary in the drilling, completing, testing, and in furnishing power
for the production of wells; and
(b) Does not include the nonproduction of gas from a formation if necessary
to protect public health, safety, and welfare; the environment; or wildlife resources
as determined by the commission.
(44) Waste, as applied to oil:
(a) Includes underground waste; inefficient, excessive, or improper use or
dissipation of reservoir energy, including gas energy and water drive; surface
waste; open-pit storage; and waste incident to the production of oil in excess of the
producer's aboveground storage facilities and lease and contractual requirements,
but excluding storage, other than open-pit storage, reasonably necessary for
building up or maintaining crude stocks and products of crude stocks for
consumption, use, and sale; and
(b) Does not include the nonproduction of oil from a formation if necessary to
protect public health, safety, and welfare; the environment; or wildlife resources as
determined by the commission.
(45) Waste, in addition to the meanings as set forth in subsections (43) and
(44) of this section:
(a) Means, subject to subsection (45)(b) of this section:
(I) Physical waste, as that term is generally understood in the oil and gas
industry;
(II) The locating, spacing, drilling, equipping, operating, or producing of any
oil or gas well or wells in a manner that causes or tends to cause reduction in
quantity of oil or gas ultimately recoverable from a pool under prudent and proper
operations or that causes or tends to cause unnecessary or excessive surface loss
or destruction of oil or gas; and
(III) Abuse of the correlative rights of any owner in a pool due to nonuniform,
disproportionate, unratable, or excessive withdrawals of oil or gas from the pool,
causing reasonably avoidable drainage between tracts of land or resulting in one or
more producers or owners in the pool producing more than an equitable share of
the oil or gas from the pool; and
(b) Does not include the nonproduction of oil or gas from a formation if
necessary to protect public health, safety, and welfare; the environment; or wildlife
resources as determined by the commission.
(46) Wildlife resources means fish, wildlife, and their aquatic and
terrestrial habitats.