2023 West Virginia Code › Chapter 22. Environmental Resources › Article 6A. Natural Gas Horizontal Well Control Act › §22-6A-4. Definitions

(a) All definitions set forth in article six of this chapter apply when those defined terms are used in this article, unless the context in which the term is used clearly requires a different meaning.
(b) Unless the context in which the term used clearly requires a different meaning, as used in this article:
(1) "Best management practices" means schedules of activities, prohibitions of practices, maintenance procedures and other management practices established by the department to prevent or reduce pollution of waters of this state. For purposes of this article, best management practices also includes those practices and procedures set out in the Erosion and Sediment Control Manual of the Office of Oil and Gas;
(2) "Department" means the Department of Environmental Protection;
(3) "Flowback Recycle Pit" means a pit used for the retention of flowback and freshwater and into which no other wastes of any kind are placed;
(4) "Freshwater Impoundment" means an impoundment used for the retention of fresh water and into which no wastes of any kind are placed;
(5) "Horizontal drilling" means a method of drilling a well for the production of natural gas that is intended to maximize the length of wellbore that is exposed to the formation and in which the wellbore is initially vertical but is eventually curved to become horizontal, or nearly horizontal, to parallel a particular geologic formation;
(6) "Horizontal well" means any well site, other than a coalbed methane well, drilled using a horizontal drilling method, and which disturbs three acres or more of surface, excluding pipelines, gathering lines and roads, or utilizes more than two hundred ten thousand gallons of water in any thirty day period;
(7) "Impoundment" means a man-made excavation or diked area for the retention of fluids;
(8) "Karst terrain" means a terrain, generally underlain by limestone or dolomite, in which the topography is formed chiefly by the dissolving of rock, and which may be characterized by sinkholes, sinking streams, closed depressions, subterranean drainage and caves;
(9) "Perennial stream" means a stream or portion of a stream that flows year-round, is considered a permanent stream and for which base flow is maintained by ground-water discharge to the streambed due to the ground-water elevation adjacent to the stream being higher than the elevation of the streambed;
(10) "Pit" means a man-made excavation or diked area that contains or is intended to contain an accumulation of process waste fluids, drill cuttings or any other liquid substance generated in the development of a horizontal well and which could impact surface or groundwater;
(11) "Secretary" means the Secretary of the Department of Environmental Protection as established in article one of this chapter or other person to whom the secretary has delegated authority or duties pursuant to sections six or eight, article one of this chapter; and
(12) "Water purveyor" means any person engaged in the business of selling water to another and who is regulated by the Bureau for Public Health pursuant to title sixty-four, series three of the West Virginia Code of State Rules.