R655-1-1. General Provisions

  1.1 Authority: In Section 73-22-5, the Division of Water Rights is given jurisdiction and authority to require that all wells for the discovery and production of water and steam at temperatures greater than 120 degrees centigrade to be used for geothermal energy production in the State of Utah, be drilled, operated, maintained, and abandoned in a manner as to safeguard life, health, property, the public welfare, and to encourage maximum economic recovery.

  1.2 Definitions:

  (a) "Applicant" means any person submitting an application to the Division of Water Rights to appropriate water, brine or steam for geothermal purposes and for the construction and operation of any well or injection well.

  (b) "BOPE" is an abbreviation for Blow-Out Prevention Equipment which is designed to be attached to the casing in a geothermal well in order to prevent a blow-out.

  (c) "Completion." A well is considered to be completed thirty days after drilling operations have ceased unless a suspension of operation is approved by the Division, or thirty days after it has commenced producing a geothermal resource, whichever occurs first, unless drilling operations are resumed before the end of the thirty-day period or at the end of the suspension.

  (d) "Correlative Rights" means the owners' or operators' just and equitable share in the geothermal resource.

  (e) "Division" means the Division of Water Rights, Department of Natural Resources, State of Utah.

  (f) "Drilling Logs" means the recorded description of the lithologic sequence encountered in drilling a well.

  (g) "Drilling Operations" means the actual drilling, redrilling, or recompletion of the well for production or injection including the running and cementing of casing and the installation of well head equipment. Drilling operations do not include perforating, logging, and related operations.

  (h) "Exploratory Well" means a well drilled for the discovery or evaluation of geothermal resources either in an established geothermal field or in unexplored areas.

  (i) "Geothermal Area" means the same general land area which in its subsurface is underlaid or reasonably appears to be underlaid by geothermal resources from or in a reservoir, pool, or other source or interrelated sources.

  (j) "Geothermal Field" means an area designated by the Division which contains a well or wells capable of commercial production of geothermal resources.

  (k) "Geothermal Resource" means the natural heat energy of the earth, the energy in whatever form which may be found in any position and at any depth below the surface of the earth, present in, resulting from, or created by, or which may be extracted from natural heat and all minerals in solution or other products obtained from the material medium of any geothermal resource.

  (l) "Injection Well" means any special well, converted producing well, or reactivated or converted abandoned well employed for injecting material into a geothermal area or adjacent area to maintain pressures in a geothermal reservoir, pool, or other source, or to provide new material to serve as a material medium therein, or for reinjecting any material medium or the residue thereof, or any by-product of geothermal resource exploration or development into the earth.

  (m) "Material Medium" means any substance including, but not limited to, naturally heated fluids, brines, associated gases and steam in whatever form, found at any depth and in any position below the surface of the earth, which contains or transmits the natural heat energy of the earth, but excluding petroleum, oil, hydrocarbon gas, or other hydrocarbon substances.

  (n) "Notice" means a statement to the Division that the applicant intends to do work.

  (o) "Operator" means any person drilling, maintaining, operating, pumping, or in control of any well. The term operator also includes owner when any well is or has been or is about to be operated by or under the direction of the owner.

  (p) "Owner" means the owner of the geothermal lease or well and includes operator when any well is operated or has been operated or is about to be operated by any person other than the owner.

  (q) "Person" means any individual natural person, general or limited partnership, joint venture, association, cooperative organization, corporation, whether domestic or foreign, agency or subdivision of this or any other state or municipal or quasi-municipal entity whether or not it is incorporated.

  (r) "Production Well" means any well which is commercially producing or is intended for commercial production of a geothermal resource.

  (s) "State Engineer" is the Director of the Division of Water Rights, which is the agency having general administrative supervision over the waters of the State. The duties of this Division are primarily set forth in Title 73, Chapters 1 through 6.

  (t) "Suspension of Operations" means the cessation of drilling, redrilling, or alteration of casing before the well is officially abandoned or completed. All suspensions must be authorized by the Division.

  (u) "Waste" means any physical waste including, but not limited to:

  (1) Underground waste resulting from inefficient, excessive, or improper use, or dissipation of geothermal energy, or of any geothermal resource pool, reservoir, or other source; or the locating, spacing, constructing, equipping, operating, or producing of any well in a manner which results, or tends to result in reducing the quantity of geothermal energy to be recovered from any geothermal area in the State.

  (2) The inefficient above-ground transporting and storage of geothermal energy; and the locating, spacing, equipping, operating, or producing of any well or injection well in a manner causing or tending to cause unnecessary or excessive surface loss or destruction of geothermal energy; the escape into the open air from a well of steam or hot water in excess of what is reasonably necessary in the efficient development or production of a well.

  (v) "Well" means any well drilled for the discovery or production of geothermal resources or any well on lands producing geothermal resources or reasonably presumed to contain geothermal resources, or any special well, converted producing well or reactivated or converted abandoned well employed for reinjecting geothermal resources or the residue thereof.

  1.3 All administrative procedures involving applications, approvals, hearings, notices, revocations, orders and their judicial review, and all other administrative procedures required or allowed by these rules are governed by rules for administrative procedures adopted by the Division, including R655-6, Administrative Procedures for Informal Proceedings Before the Division of Water Rights of the State of Utah.

  1.4 The approval of the Division is required prior to commencing drilling, rehabilitating, renovating, deepening, redrilling, or plugging and abandonment operations.