North Dakota Administrative Code
Title 43 - Industrial Commission
Article 43-05 - Geologic Storage of Carbon Dioxide
Chapter 43-05-01 - Geologic Storage of Carbon Dioxide
Section 43-05-01-01 - Definitions
The terms used throughout this chapter have the same meaning as in chapter 43-02-03 and North Dakota Century Code chapter 38-08 except:
1. "Abandoned well" means a well whose use has been permanently discontinued or which is in a state of disrepair such that it cannot be used for its intended purpose or for observation purposes.
2. "Activity" means any activity related to the geological storage of carbon dioxide subject to regulation under this chapter and North Dakota Century Code chapter 38-22.
3. "Aquifer" means a geologic formation, group of formations, or part of a formation that is capable of yielding a significant amount of water to a well, spring, or other point of discharge.
4. "Area of review" means the region surrounding the geologic sequestration project where underground sources of drinking water may be endangered by the injection activity.
5. "Bond rating" means a rating assigned to any long-term senior secured indebtedness issued by or on behalf of the storage operator, including any indebtedness issued by any governmental authority with respect to which the storage operator is obligor.
6. "Carbon dioxide plume" means the extent underground, in three dimensions, of an injected carbon dioxide stream.
7. "Carbon dioxide stream" means carbon dioxide that has been captured from an emission source (e.g., a coal-burning power plant), plus incidental associated substances derived from the source materials and the capture process, and any substances added to the stream to enable or improve the injection process. This does not apply to any carbon dioxide stream that meets the definition of a hazardous waste.
8. "Casing" means a pipe or tubing of varying diameter and weight, which is installed into a well to maintain the structural integrity of that well.
9. "Cementing" means the operation whereby a cement slurry is pumped into a drilled hole and forced behind the casing.
10. "Closure period" means that period from permanent cessation of carbon dioxide injection until the commission issues a certificate of project completion.
11. "Confining zone" means a geologic formation, group of formations, or part of a formation stratigraphically overlying the injection zone that acts as a barrier to fluid movement. For injection wells operating under an injection depth waiver, confining zone means a geologic formation, group of formations, or part of a formation stratigraphically overlying and underlying the injection zone.
12. "Contaminant" means any physical, chemical, biological, or radiological substance or matter in water.
13. "Corrective action" means the use of commission-approved methods to ensure that wells within the area of review do not serve as conduits for the movement of fluids into underground sources of drinking water.
14. "Draft permit" means a document prepared under section 43-05-01 -07.2 indicating the commission's tentative decision to issue a storage facility permit or modify, revoke and reissue, or terminate an existing storage facility permit.
15. "Exempted aquifer" means an "aquifer" or its portion that meets the criteria in the definition of "underground sources of drinking water" but which has been exempted according to the procedures in section 43-05-01-02.4.
16. "Facility area" means the areal extent of the storage reservoir.
17. "Fault" means a surface or zone of rock fracture along which there has been displacement.
18. "Flow lines" means pipelines transporting carbon dioxide from the carbon dioxide injection facilities to the wellhead.
19. "Fluid" means any material or substance which flows or moves, whether in a semisolid, liquid, sludge, gas, or any other form or state.
20. "Formation" means a body of rock characterized by a degree of lithologic homogeneity which is prevailingly, but not necessarily, tabular and is mappable on the earth's surface or traceable in the subsurface.
21. "Formation fluid" means fluid present in a formation under natural conditions as opposed to introduced fluids.
22. "Formation fracture pressure" means the pressure, measured in pounds per square inch, which, if applied to a subsurface formation, will cause that formation to fracture.
23. "Geologic sequestration" means the geologic storage of a gaseous, liquid, or supercritical carbon dioxide stream in a storage reservoir. This term does not apply to carbon dioxide capture or transport.
24. "Geologic sequestration project" means an injection well or wells used to emplace a carbon dioxide stream beneath the lowermost formation containing underground sources of drinking water; or, wells used for geologic sequestration that have been granted a waiver of the injection depth requirements; or, wells used for geologic sequestration that have received an expansion to the areal extent of an existing enhanced oil or gas recovery aquifer exemption. It includes the subsurface three-dimensional extent of the carbon dioxide plume, as well as the associated pressure front.
25. "Ground water" means water occurring beneath the surface of the ground that fills available openings in rock or soil materials such that they may be considered saturated.
26. "Injection well" means a nonexperimental well used to inject carbon dioxide into or withdraw carbon dioxide from a reservoir.
27. "Injection zone" means a geologic formation, group of formations, or part of a formation that is of sufficient areal extent, thickness, porosity, and permeability to receive carbon dioxide through a well or wells associated with a geologic sequestration project.
28. "Mechanical integrity" means the absence of significant leakage within an injection well's tubing, casing, or packer (internal mechanical integrity), or outside of the casing (external mechanical integrity).
29. "Minerals" means coal, oil, and natural gas.
30. "Model" means a representation or simulation of a phenomenon or process that is difficult to observe directly or that occurs over long timeframes. Models that support geologic sequestration can predict the flow of carbon dioxide within the subsurface, accounting for the properties and fluid content of the subsurface formations and the effects of injection parameters.
31. "Operational period" means the period during which injection occurs.
32. "Packer" means a device lowered into a well, which can be expanded or compressed to produce a fluid-tight seal.
33. "Person" means an individual, association, partnership, corporation, municipality, state, federal, or tribal agency, or an agency or employee thereof.
34. "Plug" or "plugging" means the act or process of sealing the flow of fluid into or out of a formation through a borehole or "well" penetrating that formation.
35. "Postclosure period" means that period after the commission has issued a certificate of project completion.
36. "Postinjection site care" means appropriate monitoring and other actions, including corrective action, needed following cessation of injection to ensure that underground sources of drinking water are not endangered. Postinjection site care may occur in the closure or postclosure periods.
37. "Pressure" means the total load or force per unit area acting on a surface.
38. "Pressure front" means the zone of elevated pressure and displaced fluids created by the injection of carbon dioxide into the subsurface. The pressure front of a carbon dioxide plume refers to a zone where there is a pressure differential sufficient to cause the movement of injected fluids or formation fluids into underground sources of drinking water.
39. "Project completion" means the point in time, as determined by the commission at which the certificate of project completion is issued and the storage operator is released from all regulatory requirements associated with the storage facility.
40. "Stratum" (strata plural) means a single sedimentary bed or layer, regardless of thickness, that consists of generally the same kind of rock material.
41. "Subsurface observation well" means a well used to observe subsurface phenomena, including the presence of carbon dioxide, pressure fluctuations, fluid levels and flow, temperature, and in situ water chemistry.
42. "Surface casing" means the first string of well casing to be installed in the well.
43. "Transmissive fault or fracture" means a fault or fracture that has sufficient permeability and vertical extent to allow fluids to move between formations.
44. "Trapping" means the physical and geochemical processes by which injected carbon dioxide is sequestered in the subsurface. Physical trapping occurs when buoyant carbon dioxide rises in the formation until it reaches impermeable strata that inhibits further upward and lateral migration or is immoblized in pore spaces due to capillary forces. Geochemical trapping occurs when chemical reactions between the injected carbon dioxide and natural occurring minerals in the formation lead to the precipitation of solid carbonate minerals or dissolution in formation fluids.
45. "Underground source of drinking water" means an aquifer or any portion of an aquifer that supplies drinking water for human consumption, or in which the ground water contains fewer than ten thousand milligrams per liter total dissolved solids and is not an exempted aquifer as determined by the commission under section 43-02-05-03.
46. "Well" means a bored, drilled or driven shaft, or a dug hole, whose depth is greater than the largest surface dimension; or an improved sinkhole; or a subsurface fluid distribution system.
General Authority: NDCC 28-32-02
Law Implemented: NDCC 38-22
