Arizona Laws 27-652. Supervision by commission
A. The commission shall so supervise the drilling, operation, maintenance and abandonment of geothermal resource wells as to encourage the greatest ultimate economic recovery of geothermal resources, to prevent damage to and waste from underground geothermal reservoirs, to prevent damage to or contamination of any waters of the state or any formation productive or potentially productive of fossil fuels or helium gas, and to prevent the discharge of any fluids or gases or disposition of substances harmful to the environment by reason of drilling, operation, maintenance or abandonment of geothermal resource wells.
Terms Used In Arizona Laws 27-652
- Commission: means the oil and gas conservation commission. See Arizona Laws 27-651
- Environment: means the sum total of all the external conditions which may act upon an organism or community, to influence its development or existence. See Arizona Laws 27-651
- Geothermal resources: means :
(a) All products of geothermal processes embracing indigenous steam, hot water and hot brines. See Arizona Laws 27-651
- Person: means and includes any individual, firm, association, corporation or any other group or combination acting as a unit. See Arizona Laws 27-651
- Waste: means any physical waste including, but not limited to, underground waste resulting from the inefficient, excessive or improper use or dissipation of reservoir energy or resulting from the location, spacing, drilling, equipping, operation or production of a geothermal resources well in such a manner that reduces or tends to reduce the ultimate economic recovery of the geothermal resources within a reservoir, and surface waste resulting from the inefficient storage or utilization of geothermal resources and the location, spacing, drilling, equipping, operation or production of a geothermal resources well in such a manner that causes or tends to cause the unnecessary or excessive surface loss or destruction of geothermal resources obtained or released from the reservoir. See Arizona Laws 27-651
- Well: means any well drilled in search of geothermal resources or any development well on lands in areas proved to be underlain by one or more formations containing geothermal resources or reasonably presumed to contain geothermal resources or any well drilled for information purposes, or any producing well or reentered abandoned well used for the injection of fluids into the geothermal formation or disposition of fluids into nongeothermal formations, or any well drilled for the purpose of stimulating the heat of a formation or for the creation of heat in a formation by nuclear or any other form of energy. See Arizona Laws 27-651
B. Any person engaged in the drilling of a well for geothermal resources underlying a usable groundwater aquifer shall case the bore hole in a watertight manner from the land surface to the geothermal producing zone or to a depth sufficient to prevent damage or contamination of the aquifer from the escape of geothermal resources from the bore hole. Materials and installation procedures for casing and sealing of the bore hole shall be in accordance with specifications and procedures approved by the commission.
C. Disposal of water or brines obtained from a geothermal well whether by ponding and evaporation, release to a watercourse or other means shall not damage or contaminate the underlying groundwater aquifer or pollute any stream, river or body of surface water. Construction and maintenance of all geothermal water and brine disposal systems and of the devices required to monitor quantity and quality of the waters and brines disposed of in each system shall be in accordance with specifications, procedures and regulations approved by the commission.
D. Whenever the commission finds that it would be in the interest of maintenance of the underground geothermal resource, prevention of subsidence of the land surface or maintenance of the quality of surface and other ground waters, the commission may require reinjection of the geothermal effluent or injection of other water supplies into the producing zones.