Ariz. Admin. Code § R18-9-A601 - Definitions

The following terms apply to this Article:

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. "Administrator" means the Administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), or an authorized representative.

3. "Application" means the ADEQ prescribed method, such as a form, for applying for a permit, including any additions, revisions or modifications thereof.

4. "Appropriate Act and regulations" means the Solid Waste Disposal Act, as amended by the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA); or Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), whichever is applicable; and applicable regulations promulgated under those statutes.

5. "Aquifer" means a geological formation, group of formations, or part of a formation that is capable of yielding a significant amount of water to a well or spring.

6. "Area of review" means the area surrounding an injection well described according to the criteria set forth in R18-9-B612 or in the case of an area permit, the project area plus a circumscribing area the width of which is either 1/4 of a mile or a number calculated according to the criteria set forth in R18-9-B612.

7. "Arizona UIC Memorandum of Agreement" means the agreement between the Administrator and the Director that coordinates EPA and ADEQ activities, responsibilities, and programs under the Arizona UIC Program.

8. "Arizona UIC Program" means the UIC program administered by the Director and approved by EPA according to 42 U.S.C. § 300h-1.

9. "Casing" means a pipe or tubing of appropriate material, of varying diameter and weight, lowered into a borehole during or after drilling to support the sides of the hole and prevent the walls from caving; to prevent loss of drilling mud into porous ground; or to prevent water, gas, or other fluid from entering or leaving the hole.

10. "Catastrophic collapse" means the sudden and utter failure of overlaying strata caused by removal of underlying materials.

11. "Cementing" means the operation whereby a cement slurry is pumped into a drilled hole and/or forced behind the casing.

12. "Cesspool" means a drywell that receives untreated sanitary waste containing human excreta, and which sometimes has an open bottom and/or perforated sides.

13. "Confining zone" means a geological formation, group of formations, or parts of a formation that is capable of limiting fluid movement above an injection zone.

14. "Contaminant" means any physical, chemical, biological, or radiological substance or matter in water.

15. "Conventional mine" means an open pit or underground excavation for the production of minerals.

16. "Director" means the Director of the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality or the Director's designee.

17. "Disposal well" means a well that is used for the disposal of waste into a subsurface stratum.

18. "Draft permit" means a document prepared under R18-9-C618 indicating the Director's tentative decision to issue, renew, modify, revoke and reissue, or terminate a permit. A notice of intent to terminate a permit, and a notice of intent to deny a permit, as discussed in R18-9-C631 are types of draft permits. A denial of a request for modification, revocation and reissuance, or termination, of a permit is not a draft permit, except as discussed in R18-9-C631(B).

19. "Drilling mud" means a heavy suspension used in drilling an injection well, introduced down the drill pipe and through the drill bit.

20. "Drywell" means a well, other than an improved sinkhole or subsurface fluid distribution system, completed above the water table so that its bottom and sides are typically dry except when receiving fluids.

21. "Effective date of the Arizona UIC Program" means the date that the Arizona UIC Program is approved or established by the Administrator.

22. "Emergency permit" means a UIC permit issued in accordance with R18-9-C625.

23. "Environmental Protection Agency" or "EPA" means the United States Environmental Protection Agency.

24. "Exempted aquifer" means an aquifer or its portion that meets the criteria in the definition of underground source of drinking water (USDW) but has been exempted according to the procedures in R18-9-A605.

25. "Existing injection well" means an injection well other than a new injection well.

26. "Experimental technology" means a technology which has not been proven feasible under the conditions in which it is being tested.

27. "Facility" or "activity" means any UIC injection well subject to regulation under this Article.

28. "Fault" means a surface or zone of rock fracture along which there has been displacement.

29. "Final permit decision" means the Director's decision to issue, renew, modify, revoke and reissue, deny or terminate a permit as described in R18-9-C627.

30. "Flow rate" means the volume per time unit given the flow of gases or other fluid substance which emerges from an orifice, pump, turbine, or passes along a conduit or channel.

31. "Fluid" means any material or substance which flows or moves whether in a semisolid, liquid, sludge, gas, or any other form or state.

32. "Formation" means a body of consolidated or unconsolidated 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.

33. "Formation fluid" means fluid present in a formation under natural conditions as opposed to introduced fluids, such as drilling mud.

34. "Generator" means any person, by site location, whose act or process produces hazardous waste identified or listed in A.A.C. Title 18, Chapter 8 (Hazardous Waste Management).

35. "Geologic sequestration" means the long-term containment of a gaseous, liquid, or supercritical carbon dioxide stream in subsurface geologic formations. This term does not apply to carbon dioxide capture or transport.

36. "Ground water" means water below the land surface in a zone of saturation.

37. "Hazardous waste" means a hazardous waste as defined in A.R.S. § 49-921.

38. "Improved sinkhole" means a naturally occurring karst depression or other natural crevice found in volcanic terrain and other geologic settings which have been modified by man for the purpose of directing and emplacing fluids into the subsurface.

39. "Indian lands" means Indian country as defined in 18 U.S.C. 1151.

40. "Indian Tribe" means any Indian Tribe having a Federally recognized governing body carrying out substantial governmental duties and powers over a defined area.

41. "Injection well" means a well into which fluids are being injected.

42. "Injection zone" means a geological formation group of formations, or part of a formation receiving fluids through a well.

43. "Lithology" means the description of rocks on the basis of their physical and chemical characteristics.

44. "Major facility" means any UIC facility or activity classified as such by the Administrator in conjunction with the Director.

45. "New injection wells" means an injection well which began injection after the effective date of the Arizona UIC Program.

46. "Owner" or "operator" means the owner or operator of any facility or activity subject to regulation under the Arizona UIC program.

47. "Packer" means a device lowered into a well to produce a fluid-tight seal.

48. "Permit" means an authorization issued by the Director pursuant to this Article. 'Permit' includes an area permit under R18-9-C624 and an emergency permit under R18-9-C625 . 'Permit' does not include UIC authorization by rule or any permit which has not yet been subject to a final permit decision, such as a 'draft permit.'"

49. "Person" means an individual, employee, officer, managing body, trust, firm, joint-stock company, consortium, public or private corporation, Partnership, association or state, a political subdivision of this state, a commission, the United States government or any federal facility, interstate body, Tribal agency, or other entity.

50. "Plugging" means the act or process of stopping the flow of water, oil or gas into or out of a formation through a borehole or well penetrating that formation.

51. "Plugging record" means a systematic listing of permanent or temporary abandonment of water, oil, gas, test, exploration and waste injection wells, and may contain a well log, description of amounts and types of plugging material used, the method employed for plugging, a description of formations which are sealed and a graphic log of the well showing formation location, formation thickness, and location of plugging structures.

52. "Pressure" means the total load or force per unit area acting on a surface.

53. "Project" means a group of wells in a single operation.

54. "Radioactive Waste" means any waste which contains radioactive material in concentrations which exceed those listed in 10 CFR part 20, appendix B, table II column 2.

55. "RCRA" means the Solid Waste Disposal Act as amended by the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976 ( Pub. L. 94580, as amended by Pub. L. 95-609, Pub. L. 96-510, 42 U.S.C. 6901 et seq.).

56. "Sanitary waste" means liquid or solid wastes originating solely from humans and human activities, such as wastes collected from toilets, showers, wash basins, sinks used for cleaning domestic areas, sinks used for food preparation, clothes washing operations, and sinks or washing machines where food and beverage serving dishes, glasses, and utensils are cleaned. Sources of these wastes may include single or multiple residences, hotels and motels, restaurants, bunkhouses, schools, ranger stations, crew quarters, guard stations, campgrounds, picnic grounds, day-use recreation areas, other commercial facilities, and industrial facilities provided the waste is not mixed with industrial waste.

57. "Schedule of compliance" means a schedule of remedial measures included in a permit including an enforceable sequence of interim requirements leading to compliance with this Article.

58. "SDWA" or "Safe Drinking Water Act" means the Safe Drinking Water Act ( Pub. L. 93-523, as amended; 42 U.S.C. 300f et seq.).

59. "Septic system" means a well that is used to emplace sanitary waste below the surface and is typically comprised of a septic tank and subsurface fluid distribution system or disposal system.

60. "Site" means the land or water area where any facility or activity is physically located or conducted, including adjacent land used in connection with the facility or activity.

61. "Stratum" means a single sedimentary bed or layer, or series of layers that consists of generally the same kind of rock material regardless of thickness. The plural of stratum is strata.

62. "Subsidence" means the lowering of the natural land surface in response to earth movements; lowering fluid pressures; removal of underlying support material by mining or solution of solids, either artificially or from natural causes; compaction due to wetting; oxidation of organic matter in soils; or added load on the land surface.

63. "Subsurface fluid distribution system" means an assemblage of perforated pipes, drain tiles, or other similar mechanisms intended to distribute fluids below the surface of the ground.

64. "Surface casing" means the first string of well casing to be installed in the well.

65. "Total dissolved solids" or "TDS" means the total dissolved (filterable) solids as determined by use of the method specified in A.A.C. R9-14-610 or R9-14-611.

66. "Transferee" means the owner or operator receiving ownership and/or operational control of the well.

67. "Transferor" means the owner or operator transferring ownership and/or operational control of the well.

68. "Underground injection" means a well injection; which excludes the underground injection of natural gas for purposes of storage and the underground injection of fluids or propping agents (other than diesel fuels) pursuant to hydraulic fracturing operations related to oil, gas, or geothermal production activities.

69. "Underground Injection Control" or "UIC" means the Underground Injection Control program under Part C of the Safe Drinking Water Act, including the Arizona UIC Program.

70. "USDW," "USDWs," or "Underground source of drinking water" means an aquifer or aquifers or its portion that:

a. Supplies any public water system; or

b. Contains a sufficient quantity of ground water to supply a public water system; and

i. Currently supplies drinking water for human consumption; or

ii. Contains fewer than 10,000 mg/l total dissolved solids; and

c. Is not an exempted aquifer.

71. "Well" means a bored, drilled, or driven shaft whose depth is greater than the largest surface dimension; or a dug hole whose depth is greater than the largest surface dimension; or, an improved sinkhole; or a subsurface fluid distribution system.

72. "Well injection" means the subsurface emplacement of fluids through a well.

73. "Well plug" means a watertight and gastight seal installed in a borehole or well to prevent movement of fluids.

74. "Well monitoring" means the measurement, by on-site instruments or laboratory methods, of the quality of water in a well.

75. "Well stimulation" means several processes used to clean the well bore, enlarge channels and increase pore space in the interval to be injected thus making it possible for wastewater to move more readily into the formation and includes surging, jetting, blasting, acidizing, or hydraulic fracturing.

Notes

Ariz. Admin. Code § R18-9-A601

New Section made by final rulemaking at 28 A.A.R. 1903, effective 9/6/2022.