Compilation of Rules and Regulations of the State of Georgia › Department 391 - RULES OF GEORGIA DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES › Chapter 391-3 - ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION › Subject 391-3-6 - WATER QUALITY CONTROL › Rule 391-3-6-.13 - Underground Injection Control

Current through Rules and Regulations filed
				through June 27, 2024
(1)
Purpose.
The purpose of this
				rule, 391-3-6-.13 is
				to establish classes of injection wells, prohibitions, criteria and standards
				applicable to injection wells.
(2)
Definitions.
All terms used in this rule shall be interpreted in
				accordance with the definitions as set forth in the Act, unless otherwise
				defined in this Paragraph or in any other Rule of this Chapter. All federal
				regulations adopted by reference are those in effect as of January 1, 2000.
(a) "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.
(b) "Aquifer" means a
				geological formation, group of formations, or part of a formation that is
				capable of yielding water to a well or spring.
(c) "Area of review" means the area
				surrounding an injection well or field where migration of the injection and/or
				formation fluid into an underground source of drinking water may
				occur.
(d) "Casting" means a pipe
				or tubing of appropriate material of varying diameter and weight, lowered into
				a borehole during or after drilling in order to support the sides of the hole
				and thus 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.
(e) "Catastrophic
				collapse" means the sudden and utter failure of overlying strata caused by the
				removal of underlying materials.
(f) "Cementing" means the operation whereby a
				cement slurry is pumped into a drilled hole and/or forced behind the
				casing.
(g) "Cesspool" means a
				"drywell" that receives untreated sanitary waste containing human excreta, and
				which sometimes has an open bottom and/or perforated sides.
(h) "Class V septic system" means a "septic
				system" that handles sanitary and/or other wastes and has the capacity to serve
				20 or more persons a day.
(i)
				"Confining bed" means a body of impermeable or distinctly less permeable
				material stratigraphically adjacent to one or more aquifers.
(j) "Confining zone" means a geological
				formation, group of formations, or part of a formation that is capable of
				limiting fluid movement above or below an injection zone.
(k) "Contaminant" means any physical,
				chemical, biological or radiological substance or matter in water.
(l) "Conventional mine" means an open pit or
				underground excavation for the production of minerals.
(m) "Disposal well" means a well used for the
				disposal of waste into a subsurface stratum.
(n) "Drainage well" means a well used to
				drain surface water into a shallow aquifer. An induced recharge well which
				drains ground water from a shallow aquifer into a deeper aquifer is not a
				drainage well.
(o) "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.
(p) "Exempted aquifer" means an aquifer or
				its portion that meets the criteria in the definition of underground source of
				drinking water but which has been exempted according to the procedures in
				Paragraph
				391-3-6-.13(4).
(q) "Facility, operations or activity" means
				any injection well or system.
(r)
				"Fluid" means any material or substance which flows or moves whether in a
				semisolid, liquid, sludge, gas, or any other form or state.
(s) "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.
(t) "Formation fluid" means fluid present in
				a formation under natural conditions as opposed to introduced fluids, such as
				drilling mud.
(u) "Generator" means
				any person, by site location, whose act or process produces hazardous waste
				identified or listed in Federal Regulations, 40 C.F.R. Part 261.
(v) "Groundwater" means water below the land
				surface in the zone of saturation.
(w) "Grout" means a mixture of not more than
				six gallons of clear water to one 95-pound bag of Portland cement or a mixture
				of clear water and bentonite adequate to create an impervious seal. The mixture
				may contain additives in proper amounts as necessary to reduce shrinkage and
				increase compatibility of the grout to injection and formation
				fluids.
(x) "Hazardous waste" means
				a hazardous waste as defined by the Georgia Hazardous Waste Management Act,
				Georgia Laws 1979, p. 1127, et seq., and the rules adopted pursuant to the
				Act.
(y) "Hazardous waste
				management facility" means all contiguous land and structures, other
				appurtenances and improvements on the land used for treating, storing, or
				disposing of hazardous waste. A facility may consist of several treatment,
				storage, or disposal operational units.
(z) "Improved sinkhole" means a naturally
				occurring karst depression or other natural crevice found in other geologic
				settings which has been modified by man for the purpose of directing and
				emplacing fluids into the subsurface.
(aa) "Injection" means the subsurface
				emplacement of fluids.
(bb)
				"Injection well" means a well into which fluids are being or intended to be,
				injected.
(cc) "Injection zone"
				means a geological formation, group of formations, or part of a formation
				receiving fluids, through a well.
(dd) "Packer" means a device lowered into a
				well to produce a fluid-tight seal.
(ee) "Person" means any individual,
				corporation, association, partnership, county, municipality, State agency,
				Federal agency or facility or other entity.
(ff) "Plugging" means the act or process of
				stopping the flow of all fluids, including water, oil or gas into or out of a
				formation through a borehole or well penetrating that formation.
(gg) "Point of injection" means the last
				accessible sampling point prior to waste fluids being released into the
				subsurface environment through an injection well. For example, the point of
				injection of a Class V septic system might be the distribution box - the last
				accessible sampling point before the waste fluids drain into the underlying
				soils. For a drywell, it is likely to be the well bore itself.
(hh) "Radioactive waste" means any waste
				which contains radioactive material.
(ii) "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.
(jj) "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.
(kk) "Site" means the land
				or water area where any facility, operation or activity is physically located
				or conducted, including adjacent land used in connection with the facility,
				operation or activity.
(ll)
				"Stratum (plural strata)" means a single sedimentary bed or layer, regardless
				of thickness, that consists of generally the same kind of rock
				material.
(mm) "Subsidence" means
				the lowering of the natural land surface in response to: earth movements;
				lowering of fluid pressure; removal of underlying supporting material by mining
				or solution of solids, either artificially or from natural causes; compaction
				due to wetting (hydrocompaction); oxidation of organic matter in soils; or
				added load on the land surface.
(nn) "Subsurface fluid distribution system"
				means an assemblage of perforated pipes, drain tiles, or similar mechanisms
				intended to distribute fluids below the surface of the ground.
(oo) "Underground source of drinking water"
				means all aquifers or portions of aquifers which are not exempted
				aquifers.
(pp) "Waters or Waters of
				the State" includes any and all rivers, streams, creeks, branches, reservoirs,
				ponds, drainage systems, springs, wells, and all other bodies of surface or
				subsurface water, natural or artificial, lying within or forming a part of the
				boundaries of the State which are not entirely confined and retained completely
				upon the property of a single individual, partnership, or
				corporation.
(qq) "Well" means an
				open bored, drilled or driven shaft, whose depth is greater than the largest
				surface dimension; or an open dug hole whose depth is greater than the largest
				surface dimension; or, an improved sinkhole; or a subsurface fluid distribution
				system. Ditches and drains, open or filled, are not wells.
(rr) "Well head protection area" means that
				land area delineated in accordance with Rule
				391-3-5-.40.
(ss) "Well injection" means the subsurface
				emplacement of fluids through a well.
(tt) All other technical terms shall be
				defined in accordance to the definitions provided in Driscoll, F.G., 1996,
				Groundwater and wells, Johnson Division, St. Paul MN 55112.