| (a) The following words and terms when used in this
section shall have the following meanings, unless the context clearly
indicates otherwise.
(1) Basic sediment pit--Pit used in conjunction with
a tank battery for storage of basic sediment removed from a production
vessel or from the bottom of an oil storage tank. Basic sediment pits
were formerly referred to as burn pits.
(2) Brine pit--Pit used for storage of brine which
is used to displace hydrocarbons from an underground hydrocarbon storage
facility.
(3) Collecting pit--Pit used for storage of saltwater
or other oil and gas wastes prior to disposal at a disposal well or
fluid injection well. In some cases, one pit is both a collecting
pit and a skimming pit.
(4) Completion/workover pit--Pit used for storage or
disposal of spent completion fluids, workover fluids and drilling
fluid, silt, debris, water, brine, oil scum, paraffin, or other materials
which have been cleaned out of the wellbore of a well being completed
or worked over.
(5) Drilling fluid disposal pit--Pit, other than a
reserve pit, used for disposal of spent drilling fluid.
(6) Drilling fluid storage pit--Pit used for storage
of drilling fluid which is not currently being used but which will
be used in future drilling operations. Drilling fluid storage pits
are often centrally located among several leases.
(7) Emergency saltwater storage pit--Pit used for storage
of produced saltwater for limited period of time. Use of the pit is
necessitated by a temporary shutdown of disposal well or fluid injection
well and/or associated equipment, by temporary overflow of saltwater
storage tanks on a producing lease or by a producing well loading
up with formation fluids such that the well may die. Emergency saltwater
storage pits may sometimes be referred to as emergency pits or blowdown
pits.
(8) Flare pit--Pit which contains a flare and which
is used for temporary storage of liquid hydrocarbons which are sent
to the flare during equipment malfunction but which are not burned.
A flare pit is used in conjunction with a gasoline plant, natural
gas processing plant, pressure maintenance or repressurizing plant,
tank battery, or a well.
(9) Fresh makeup water pit--Pit used in conjunction
with a drilling rig for storage of fresh water used to make up drilling
fluid or hydraulic fracturing fluid.
(10) Gas plant evaporation/retention pit--Pit used
for storage or disposal of cooling tower blowdown, water condensed
from natural gas, and other wastewater generated at gasoline plants,
natural gas processing plants, or pressure maintenance or repressurizing
plants.
(11) Mud circulation pit--Pit used in conjunction with
drilling rig for storage of drilling fluid currently being used in
drilling operations.
(12) Reserve pit--Pit used in conjunction with drilling
rig for collecting spent drilling fluids; cuttings, sands, and silts;
and wash water used for cleaning drill pipe and other equipment at
the well site. Reserve pits are sometimes referred to as slush pits
or mud pits.
(13) Saltwater disposal pit--Pit used for disposal
of produced saltwater.
(14) Skimming pit--Pit used for skimming oil off saltwater
prior to disposal of saltwater at a disposal well or fluid injection
well.
(15) Washout pit--Pit located at a truck yard, tank
yard, or disposal facility for storage or disposal of oil and gas
waste residue washed out of trucks, mobile tanks, or skid-mounted
tanks.
(16) Water condensate pit--Pit used in conjunction
with a gas pipeline drip or gas compressor station for storage or
disposal of fresh water condensed from natural gas.
(17) Generator--Person who generates oil and gas wastes.
(18) Carrier--Person who transports oil and gas wastes
generated by a generator. A carrier of another person's oil and gas
wastes may be a generator of his own oil and gas wastes.
(19) Receiver--Person who stores, handles, treats,
reclaims, or disposes of oil and gas wastes generated by a generator.
A receiver of another person's oil and gas wastes may be a generator
of his own oil and gas wastes.
(20) Director--Director of the Oil and Gas Division
or his staff delegate designated in writing by the director of the
Oil and Gas Division or the commission.
(21) Person--Natural person, corporation, organization,
government or governmental subdivision or agency, business trust,
estate, trust, partnership, association, or any other legal entity.
(22) Affected person--Person who, as a result of the
activity sought to be permitted, has suffered or may suffer actual
injury or economic damage other than as a member of the general public.
(23) To dewater--To remove the free water.
(24) To dispose--To engage in any act of disposal subject
to regulation by the commission including, but not limited to, conducting,
draining, discharging, emitting, throwing, releasing, depositing,
burying, landfarming, or allowing to seep, or to cause or allow any
such act of disposal.
(25) Landfarming--A waste management practice in which
oil and gas wastes are mixed with or applied to the land surface in
such a manner that the waste will not migrate off the landfarmed area.
(26) Oil and gas wastes--Materials to be disposed of
or reclaimed which have been generated in connection with activities
associated with the exploration, development, and production of oil
or gas or geothermal resources, as those activities are defined in
paragraph (30) of this subsection, and materials to be disposed of
or reclaimed which have been generated in connection with activities
associated with the solution mining of brine. The term "oil and gas
wastes" includes, but is not limited to, saltwater, other mineralized
water, sludge, spent drilling fluids, cuttings, waste oil, spent completion
fluids, and other liquid, semiliquid, or solid waste material. The
term "oil and gas wastes" includes waste generated in connection with
activities associated with gasoline plants, natural gas or natural
gas liquids processing plants, pressure maintenance plants, or repressurizing
plants unless that waste is a hazardous waste as defined by the administrator
of the United States Environmental Protection Agency pursuant to the
federal Solid Waste Disposal Act, as amended (42 United States Code §6901
et seq.).
(27) Oil field fluids--Fluids to be used or reused
in connection with activities associated with the exploration, development,
and production of oil or gas or geothermal resources, fluids to be
used or reused in connection with activities associated with the solution
mining of brine, and mined brine. The term "oil field fluids" includes,
but is not limited to, drilling fluids, completion fluids, surfactants,
and chemicals used to detoxify oil and gas wastes.
(28) Pollution of surface or subsurface water--The
alteration of the physical, thermal, chemical, or biological quality
of, or the contamination of, any surface or subsurface water in the
state that renders the water harmful, detrimental, or injurious to
humans, animal life, vegetation, or property, or to public health,
safety, or welfare, or impairs the usefulness or the public enjoyment
of the water for any lawful or reasonable purpose.
(29) Surface or subsurface water--Groundwater, percolating
or otherwise, and lakes, bays, ponds, impounding reservoirs, springs,
rivers, streams, creeks, estuaries, marshes, inlets, canals, the Gulf
of Mexico inside the territorial limits of the state, and all other
bodies of surface water, natural or artificial, inland or coastal,
fresh or salt, navigable or nonnavigable, and including the beds and
banks of all watercourses and bodies of surface water, that are wholly
or partially inside or bordering the state or inside the jurisdiction
of the state.
(30) Activities associated with the exploration, development,
and production of oil or gas or geothermal resources--Activities associated
with:
(A) the drilling of exploratory wells, oil wells, gas
wells, or geothermal resource wells;
(B) the production of oil or gas or geothermal resources,
including:
(i) activities associated with the drilling of injection
water source wells that penetrate the base of usable quality water;
(ii) activities associated with the drilling of cathodic
protection holes associated with the cathodic protection of wells
and pipelines subject to the jurisdiction of the commission to regulate
the production of oil or gas or geothermal resources;
(iii) activities associated with gasoline plants, natural
gas or natural gas liquids processing plants, pressure maintenance
plants, or repressurizing plants;
(iv) activities associated with any underground natural
gas storage facility, provided the terms "natural gas" and "storage
facility" shall have the meanings set out in the Texas Natural Resources
Code, §91.173;
(v) activities associated with any underground hydrocarbon
storage facility, provided the terms "hydrocarbons" and "underground
hydrocarbon storage facility" shall have the meanings set out in the
Texas Natural Resources Code, §91.201; and
(vi) activities associated with the storage, handling,
reclamation, gathering, transportation, or distribution of oil or
gas prior to the refining of such oil or prior to the use of such
gas in any manufacturing process or as a residential or industrial
fuel;
(C) the operation, abandonment, and proper plugging
of wells subject to the jurisdiction of the commission to regulate
the exploration, development, and production of oil or gas or geothermal
resources; and
(D) the discharge, storage, handling, transportation,
reclamation, or disposal of waste or any other substance or material
associated with any activity listed in subparagraphs (A) - (C) of
this paragraph, except for waste generated in connection with activities
associated with gasoline plants, natural gas or natural gas liquids
processing plants, pressure maintenance plants, or repressurizing
plants if that waste is a hazardous waste as defined by the administrator
of the United States Environmental Protection Agency pursuant to the
federal Solid Waste Disposal Act, as amended (42 United States Code §6901,
et seq.).
(31) Mined brine--Brine produced from a brine mining
injection well by solution of subsurface salt formations. The term
"mined brine" does not include saltwater produced incidentally to
the exploration, development, and production of oil or gas or geothermal
resources.
(32) Brine mining pit--Pit, other than a fresh mining
water pit, used in connection with activities associated with the
solution mining of brine. Most brine mining pits are used to store
mined brine.
(33) Fresh mining water pit--Pit used in conjunction
with a brine mining injection well for storage of water used for solution
mining of brine.
(34) Inert wastes--Nonreactive, nontoxic, and essentially
insoluble oil and gas wastes, including, but not limited to, concrete,
glass, wood, metal, wire, plastic, fiberglass, and trash.
(35) Coastal zone--The area within the boundary established
in Title 31, Texas Administrative Code, §503.1 (Coastal Management
Program Boundary).
(36) Coastal management program (CMP) rules--The enforceable
rules of the Texas Coastal Management Program codified at Title 31,
Texas Administrative Code, Chapters 501, 505, and 506.
(37) Coastal natural resource area (CNRA)--One of the
following areas defined in Texas Natural Resources Code, §33.203:
coastal barriers, coastal historic areas, coastal preserves, coastal
shore areas, coastal wetlands, critical dune areas, critical erosion
areas, gulf beaches, hard substrate reefs, oyster reefs, submerged
land, special hazard areas, submerged aquatic vegetation, tidal sand
or mud flats, water in the open Gulf of Mexico, and water under tidal
influence.
(38) Coastal waters--Waters under tidal influence and
waters of the open Gulf of Mexico.
(39) Critical area--A coastal wetland, an oyster reef,
a hard substrate reef, submerged aquatic vegetation, or a tidal sand
or mud flat as defined in Texas Natural Resources Code, §33.203.
(40) Practicable--Available and capable of being done
after taking into consideration existing technology, cost, and logistics
in light of the overall purpose of the activity.
(41) Non-commercial fluid recycling--The recycling
of fluid produced from an oil or gas well, including produced formation
fluid, workover fluid, and completion fluid, including fluids produced
from the hydraulic fracturing process on an existing commission-designated
lease or drilling unit associated with a commission-issued drilling
permit or upon land leased or owned by the operator for the purposes
of operation of a non-commercial disposal well operated pursuant to
a permit issued under §3.9 of this title (relating to Disposal
Wells) or a non-commercial injection well operated pursuant to a permit
issued under §3.46 of this title (relating to Fluid Injection
into Productive Reservoirs), where the operator of the lease, or drilling
unit, or non-commercial disposal or injection well treats or contracts
with a person for the treatment of the fluid, and may accept such
fluid from other leases and or operators.
Cont'd... |
