Utah Administrative Code
Topic - Natural Resources
Title R655 - Natural Resources, Water Rights
Rule R655-1 - Wells Used for the Discovery and Production of Geothermal Energy in the State of Utah
Section R655-1-1 - General Provisions
Universal Citation: UT Admin Code R 655-1-1
Current through Bulletin 2024-18, September 15, 2024
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 byproduct 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.
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