Mississippi Administrative Code › Title 22 - MISSISSIPPI DEPARTMENT OF MARINE RESOURCES › Part 23 - RULES AND REGULATIONS FOR THE COASTAL WETLANDS PROTECTION LAW AND THE MISSISSIPPI COASTAL PROGRAM › Chapter 08 - Requirements for Conducting Regulated Activities › Section 22-23-08-110

Current through June 25, 2024
Oil and Gas Exploration and Production
110.01 Directional drilling from existing
				sites, canals, bayous, deeper bay waters, or non-marsh locations must be used
				in preference to temporary roads. Temporary roadbeds (preferably plank roads)
				to provide access from land must be used in preference to dredging canals for
				access to well sites.
110.02
				Proposed road alignments must use upland or previously disturbed marsh areas.
110.03 All streams must be bridged
				or provided with culverts to prevent alterations to tidal influence and natural
				drainage patterns.
110.04 Culverts
				or similar structures must be installed under the road at appropriate intervals
				(never more than two hundred and fifty (250) feet apart) to prevent blockage of
				surface drainage or tidal flow, with all culvert openings being subsequently
				maintained.
110.05 No hydrocarbons,
				hydrocarbon containing substances, drilling muds, drill cuttings, or toxic
				substances are allowed to flow into coastal wetlands or other wetlands adjacent
				to coastal wetlands.
110.06 Upon
				completion or abandonment of wells in coastal wetlands or other wetlands
				adjacent to coastal wetlands, all unnecessary equipment must be removed; the
				well site, levees, roads, and work areas must be restored to the conditions
				that supported the type of wetland that existed prior to development.
110.07 Existing navigable waters must be used
				for access to oil and gas extraction sites in preference to new dredging or
				excavation.
110.08 Sensitive
				coastal wetlands and other productive shallow water areas must be avoided when
				siting extraction facilities. Directional drilling must be employed when the
				shorelines of barrier islands or beaches, small fishing banks, hard banks, or
				reefs would otherwise be disturbed.
110.09 No discharge into coastal wetlands or
				other wetlands adjacent to coastal wetlands of cuttings, drilling fluids,
				produced waters, sanitary wastes, contaminated deck drainage, or any other
				materials that are associated with oil and gas operations in the coastal
				wetlands of Mississippi, except that non-contact cooling waters when permitted
				for discharge under the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System program
				is allowed.
110.10 To maintain the
				integrity of small fishing banks, (generally five hundred (500) acres or less)
				and their accessibility by sport and commercial fishermen, no structures are
				authorized to be placed either temporarily or permanently on the top of these
				banks.
110.11 For exploration and
				production activities in close proximity to sensitive coastal wetlands or
				fishing areas, uncontaminated drill cuttings must be shunted away from
				sensitive areas and discharged at or near the bottom, or must be transported to
				shore or to less sensitive offshore locations.
110.12 Drilling and production structures,
				and oil pipelines must not be placed within one (1) mile of the bases of live
				reefs.
110.13 All facilities,
				obstructions, or debris that could impair recreational or commercial fishing
				must be removed or terminated beneath the water bottom. Whenever this is not
				practicable, a lighted buoy must mark them to prevent fouling of fishing gear.
110.14 All pipelines placed in
				coastal wetlands must be buried.
110.15 See also Requirements for Dredging and
				Excavation (Chapter 08, 117).