Louisiana Administrative Code › Title 43 - NATURAL RESOURCES › Part XVII - Office of Conservation-Injection and Mining › Subpart 2 - Statewide Order No. 29-N-2 › Chapter 2 - Class I Hazardous Waste Injection Wells › Section XVII-201 - Definitions

Current through Register Vol. 50, No. 6, June 20, 2024
A. The following
				  definitions apply to all regulations following hereafter. Terms not defined in
				  this Section have the meaning given by R.S. (1950) Title 30, Section 3.
Abandoned Well
- 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.
Act
- Part I, Chapter I of Title 30 of the
					 Louisiana Revised Statutes.
Application
- the filing by a person on the
					 Office of Conservation forms for applying for an underground injection permit,
					 including any additions, revisions or modifications to the forms.
Aquifer
- 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.
Area of Review
- the area surrounding an
					 injection well as described in §209 B
Casing
- a metallic or nonmetallic tubing
					 or pipe 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 the hole.
Catastrophic Collapse
- the sudden and
					 utter failure of overlying
strata
caused by removal of
					 underlying materials.
Cementing
- the operation whereby a cement
					 slurry is pumped into a drilled hole and/or forced behind the casing.
Cone of Influence
- that area around the
					 well within which increased injection zone pressures caused by injection into
					 the hazardous waste injection well would be sufficient to drive fluids into an
					 underground source of drinking water (USDW).
Confining Bed
- a body of impermeable or
					 distinctly less permeable material stratigraphically adjacent to one or more
					 aquifers.
Confining Zone
- a geological formation,
					 group of formations, or part of a formation that is capable of limiting fluid
					 movements above an injection zone.
Contaminant
- any physical, chemical,
					 biological, or radiological substance or matter in water.
Commissioner
- the Assistant Secretary of
					 the Office of Conservation, Department of Natural Resources.
Disposal Well
- a well used for the
					 disposal of waste into a subsurface stratum.
Drilling Mud
- heavy suspension used in a
					 drilling an injection well introduced down the drill pipe and through the drill
					 bit.
Effective Date
- the date that Statewide
					 Order 29-N-2 is promulgated in accordance with the Louisiana Administrative
					 Procedure Act.
Emergency Permit
- a UIC permit issued in
					 accordance with §215
Exempted Aquifer
- an aquifer or its
					 portion that meets the criteria of the definition of
underground source
					 of drinking water
but which has been exempted according to the
					 procedures set forth in §203 F
Existing Well
- a Class I hazardous waste
					 injection well which was authorized prior to August 25, 1988, by the Louisiana
					 Underground Injection Control Program or a well which has become a Class I well
					 as a result of a change in the definition of the injected waste which would
					 render the waste hazardous.
Experimental Technology
- a technology
					 which has not been proven feasible under the conditions in which it is being
					 tested.
Facility or Activity
- any facility or
					 activity (including land or appurtenances thereto) that is subject to these
					 regulations.
Fault
- a surface or zone of rock fracture
					 along which there has been displacement. (Also see
transmissive fault
					 or fracture
).
Flow Rate
- the volume per time unit given
					 to the flow of fluid substance which emerged from an orifice, pump, turbine or
					 passes along a conduit or channel.
Fluid
- any material or substance which
					 flows or moves whether in a semisolid, liquid, sludge, gas or any other form or
					 state.
Formation
- a body of rock characterized by
					 a degree of lithologic homogeneity which is prevailing, but not necessarily,
					 tabular and is mappable on the earth's surface or traceable in the
					 subsurface.
Formation Fluid
- fluid present in a
					 formation under natural conditions as opposed to introduced fluids, such as
					 drilling muds.
Generator
- any person, by site location,
					 whose act or process produces hazardous waste identified or listed in the
					 Louisiana Hazardous Waste Management Program.
Ground Water
- water below the land surface
					 in a zone of saturation.
Hazardous Waste
- a hazardous waste as
					 defined in the Louisiana Hazardous Waste Management Program.
Hazardous Waste Management (HWM) Facility
-
					 all contiguous land, and structures, other appurtenances, and improvements on
					 the land, used for treating, storing or disposing of hazardous waste.
Injection Interval
- that part of the
					 injection zone in which the well is screened, or in which the waste is
					 otherwise directly emplaced.
Injection Well
- a well into which fluids
					 are being injected other than fluids associated with active drilling
					 operations.
Injection Zone
- a geological formation,
					 group of formations or part of a formation receiving fluids through a
					 well.
Ionizing Radiation
- any electromagnetic or
					 particulate radiation capable of producing ions, directly or indirectly, in its
					 passage through matter. It includes any or all of the following: alpha rays,
					 beta rays, gamma rays, X-rays, neutrons, high-speed electrons, high-speed
					 protons, and other atomic particles; but not sound or radio waves, or visible,
					 infrared or ultraviolet light.
Lithology
- the description of rocks on the
					 basis of their physical and chemical characteristics.
Major Facility
- any Class I hazardous
					 waste injection well facility or activity.
Manifest
- the shipping document originated
					 and signed by the generator which contains the information required by the
					 Hazardous Waste Management Program.
New Well
- any Class I hazardous waste
					 injection well which is not an existing well.
Owner or Operator
- the owner or operator
					 of any facility or activity subject to regulation under the UIC program.
Packer
- a device lowered into a well to
					 produce a fluid-tight seal within the casing.
Permit
- an authorization, license, or
					 equivalent control document issued by the commissioner to implement the
					 requirement of these regulations. Permit includes, but it is not limited to,
					 area permits and emergency permits. Permit does not include UIC authorization
					 by rule or any permit which has not yet been the subject of final agency
					 action, such as a draft permit.
Person
- an individual, association,
					 partnership, corporation, municipality, state or federal agency, or an agent or
					 employee thereof.
Plugging
- 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.
Plugging Record
- a systematic listing of
					 permanent or temporary abandonment of water, oil, gas, test, exploration, and
					 waste injection wells.
Pressure
- the total load or force per unit
					 area acting on a surface.
Project
- a group of wells in a single
					 operation.
Public Water System
- a system for the
					 provision to the public of piped water for human consumption, if such system
					 has at least 15 service connections or regularly serves at least 25
					 individuals. Such term includes:
a. any collection, treatment, storage, and distinction
					 facilities under control of the operator of such system and used primarily in
					 connection with such system; and
b. any collection or pretreatment storage facilities not
					 under such control which are used primarily in connection with such system.
Radiation
- any electromagnetic or ionizing
					 radiation including gamma rays and X-rays, alpha and beta particles, high-speed
					 electrons, neutrons, protons and other nuclear particles: but not sound waves.
					 Unless specifically stated otherwise, these regulations apply only to ionizing
					 radiation.
Radioactive Material
- any material,
					 whether solid, liquid, or gas, which emits radiation spontaneously.
Radioactive Waste
- any waste which
					 contains
radioactive material
for which no use or reuse is
					 intended and which is to be discarded.
RCRA
- the Solid Waste Disposal Act as
					 amended by the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976 ( Pub. L. 94-580
					 as amended by Pub. L. 95-609,
					 42 U.S.C.
					 6901 et seq.).
Schedule of Compliance
- a schedule or
					 remedial measures included in a permit, including an enforceable sequence of
					 interim requirements (for example, actions, operations, or milestone events)
					 leading to compliance with the act and these regulations.
Site
- 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.
Skin Effect
- the blockage or plugging of
					 the well perforations or formation face from solids in the waste stream that
					 results in increased injection pressures and can be measured by accepted
					 engineering test procedures.
Sole or Principal Source Aquifer
- an
					 aquifer which is the sole or principal drinking water source for an area and
					 which, if contaminated, would create a significant hazard to public
					 health.
State
- the state of Louisiana.
Stratum
(plural
Strata
)-
					 a single sedimentary bed or layer, regardless of thickness, that consists of
					 generally the same kind of rock material.
Surface Casing
- the first string of casing
					 to be installed in the well, excluding conductor casing.
Total Dissolved Solids
- the total
					 dissolved filterable solids as determined by use of the method specified in the
					 14th edition, pp. 91-92, of "Standard Methods for the Examination of Water and
					 Waste Water."
Transmissive Fault or Fracture
- a fault of
					 fracture that has sufficient permeability and vertical extent to allow fluids
					 to move between formations.
UIC
- the Louisiana State Underground
					 Injection Control Program.
Underground Injection
-a well
					 injection.
Underground Source of Drinking Water
					 (USDW)
- an aquifer or its portion: which supplies any public water
					 system or which contains a sufficient quantity of ground water to supply water
					 system; and currently supplies drinking water for human consumption or contains
					 fewer than 10,000 mg/1 total dissolved solids; and which is not an exempted
					 aquifer.
USDW
- Underground Source of Drinking
					 Water.
Well
- a bored, drilled or driven shaft, or
					 a dug hole, whose depth is greater than the largest surface dimension.
Well Injection
- the subsurface emplacement
					 of fluids through an injection well.
Well Plug
-a fluid tight seal installed in
					 a borehole or well to prevent movement of fluids.
Well Stimulation
- 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:
a. surging;
b. jetting;
c. blasting;
d. acidizing; or
e. hydraulic fracturing.
Workover
- to perform one or more of a
					 variety of remedial operations on an injection well, such as cleaning,
					 perforation, change tubing, deepening, squeezing, plugging back,
					 etc.
AUTHORITY NOTE:
					 Promulgated in accordance with
					 R.S.
					 30:1 D and 4C(16), and
					 4.1.