North Dakota Administrative Code › Title 43 - Industrial Commission › Article 43-05 - Geologic Storage of Carbon Dioxide › Chapter 43-05-01 - Geologic Storage of Carbon Dioxide › Section 43-05-01-01 - Definitions

Current through Supplement No. 393, July, 2024
The terms used throughout this chapter have the same meaning
				  as in chapter 43-02-03 and North Dakota Century Code chapter 38-08
				  except:
1. "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.
2. "Activity" means any activity related to the geological
				  storage of carbon dioxide subject to regulation under this chapter and North
				  Dakota Century Code chapter 38-22.
3. "Aquifer" means a geologic formation, group of formations,
				  or part of a formation that is capable of yielding a significant amount of
				  water to a well, spring, or other point of discharge.
4. "Area of review" means the region surrounding the geologic
				  sequestration project where underground sources of drinking water may be
				  endangered by the injection activity.
5. "Bond rating" means a rating assigned to any long-term
				  senior secured indebtedness issued by or on behalf of the storage operator,
				  including any indebtedness issued by any governmental authority with respect to
				  which the storage operator is obligor.
6. "Carbon dioxide plume" means the extent underground, in
				  three dimensions, of an injected carbon dioxide stream.
7. "Carbon dioxide stream" means carbon dioxide that has been
				  captured from an emission source (e.g., a coal-burning power plant), plus
				  incidental associated substances derived from the source materials and the
				  capture process, and any substances added to the stream to enable or improve
				  the injection process. This does not apply to any carbon dioxide stream that
				  meets the definition of a hazardous waste.
8. "Casing" means a pipe or tubing of varying diameter and
				  weight, which is installed into a well to maintain the structural integrity of
				  that well.
9. "Cementing" means the operation whereby a cement slurry is
				  pumped into a drilled hole and forced behind the casing.
10. "Closure period" means that period from permanent
				  cessation of carbon dioxide injection until the commission issues a certificate
				  of project completion.
11. "Confining zone" means a geologic formation, group of
				  formations, or part of a formation stratigraphically overlying the injection
				  zone that acts as a barrier to fluid movement. For injection wells operating
				  under an injection depth waiver, confining zone means a geologic formation,
				  group of formations, or part of a formation stratigraphically overlying and
				  underlying the injection zone.
12. "Contaminant" means any physical, chemical, biological,
				  or radiological substance or matter in water.
13. "Corrective action" means the use of commission-approved
				  methods to ensure that wells within the area of review do not serve as conduits
				  for the movement of fluids into underground sources of drinking water.
14. "Draft permit" means a document prepared under section
				  43-05-01 -07.2 indicating the
				  commission's tentative decision to issue a storage facility permit or modify,
				  revoke and reissue, or terminate an existing storage facility permit.
15. "Exempted aquifer" means an "aquifer" or its portion that
				  meets the criteria in the definition of "underground sources of drinking water"
				  but which has been exempted according to the procedures in section
				  43-05-01-02.4.
16. "Facility area" means the areal extent of the storage
				  reservoir.
17. "Fault" means a surface or zone of rock fracture along
				  which there has been displacement.
18. "Flow lines" means pipelines transporting carbon dioxide
				  from the carbon dioxide injection facilities to the wellhead.
19. "Fluid" means any material or substance which flows or
				  moves, whether in a semisolid, liquid, sludge, gas, or any other form or
				  state.
20. "Formation" means a body of 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.
21. "Formation fluid" means fluid present in a formation
				  under natural conditions as opposed to introduced fluids.
22. "Formation fracture pressure" means the pressure,
				  measured in pounds per square inch, which, if applied to a subsurface
				  formation, will cause that formation to fracture.
23. "Geologic sequestration" means the geologic storage of a
				  gaseous, liquid, or supercritical carbon dioxide stream in a storage reservoir.
				  This term does not apply to carbon dioxide capture or transport.
24. "Geologic sequestration project" means an injection well
				  or wells used to emplace a carbon dioxide stream beneath the lowermost
				  formation containing underground sources of drinking water; or, wells used for
				  geologic sequestration that have been granted a waiver of the injection depth
				  requirements; or, wells used for geologic sequestration that have received an
				  expansion to the areal extent of an existing enhanced oil or gas recovery
				  aquifer exemption. It includes the subsurface three-dimensional extent of the
				  carbon dioxide plume, as well as the associated pressure front.
25. "Ground water" means water occurring beneath the surface
				  of the ground that fills available openings in rock or soil materials such that
				  they may be considered saturated.
26. "Injection well" means a nonexperimental well used to
				  inject carbon dioxide into or withdraw carbon dioxide from a reservoir.
27. "Injection zone" means a geologic formation, group of
				  formations, or part of a formation that is of sufficient areal extent,
				  thickness, porosity, and permeability to receive carbon dioxide through a well
				  or wells associated with a geologic sequestration project.
28. "Mechanical integrity" means the absence of significant
				  leakage within an injection well's tubing, casing, or packer (internal
				  mechanical integrity), or outside of the casing (external mechanical
				  integrity).
29. "Minerals" means coal, oil, and natural gas.
30. "Model" means a representation or simulation of a
				  phenomenon or process that is difficult to observe directly or that occurs over
				  long timeframes. Models that support geologic sequestration can predict the
				  flow of carbon dioxide within the subsurface, accounting for the properties and
				  fluid content of the subsurface formations and the effects of injection
				  parameters.
31. "Operational period" means the period during which
				  injection occurs.
32. "Packer" means a device lowered into a well, which can be
				  expanded or compressed to produce a fluid-tight seal.
33. "Person" means an individual, association, partnership,
				  corporation, municipality, state, federal, or tribal agency, or an agency or
				  employee thereof.
34. "Plug" or "plugging" means the act or process of sealing
				  the flow of fluid into or out of a formation through a borehole or "well"
				  penetrating that formation.
35. "Postclosure period" means that period after the
				  commission has issued a certificate of project completion.
36. "Postinjection site care" means appropriate monitoring
				  and other actions, including corrective action, needed following cessation of
				  injection to ensure that underground sources of drinking water are not
				  endangered. Postinjection site care may occur in the closure or postclosure
				  periods.
37. "Pressure" means the total load or force per unit area
				  acting on a surface.
38. "Pressure front" means the zone of elevated pressure and
				  displaced fluids created by the injection of carbon dioxide into the
				  subsurface. The pressure front of a carbon dioxide plume refers to a zone where
				  there is a pressure differential sufficient to cause the movement of injected
				  fluids or formation fluids into underground sources of drinking water.
39. "Project completion" means the point in time, as
				  determined by the commission at which the certificate of project completion is
				  issued and the storage operator is released from all regulatory requirements
				  associated with the storage facility.
40. "Stratum" (strata plural) means a single sedimentary bed
				  or layer, regardless of thickness, that consists of generally the same kind of
				  rock material.
41. "Subsurface observation well" means a well used to
				  observe subsurface phenomena, including the presence of carbon dioxide,
				  pressure fluctuations, fluid levels and flow, temperature, and in situ water
				  chemistry.
42. "Surface casing" means the first string of well casing to
				  be installed in the well.
43. "Transmissive fault or fracture" means a fault or
				  fracture that has sufficient permeability and vertical extent to allow fluids
				  to move between formations.
44. "Trapping" means the physical and geochemical processes
				  by which injected carbon dioxide is sequestered in the subsurface. Physical
				  trapping occurs when buoyant carbon dioxide rises in the formation until it
				  reaches impermeable strata that inhibits further upward and lateral migration
				  or is immoblized in pore spaces due to capillary forces. Geochemical trapping
				  occurs when chemical reactions between the injected carbon dioxide and natural
				  occurring minerals in the formation lead to the precipitation of solid
				  carbonate minerals or dissolution in formation fluids.
45. "Underground source of drinking water" means an aquifer
				  or any portion of an aquifer that supplies drinking water for human
				  consumption, or in which the ground water contains fewer than ten thousand
				  milligrams per liter total dissolved solids and is not an exempted aquifer as
				  determined by the commission under section
				  43-02-05-03.
46. "Well" means a bored, drilled or driven shaft, or a dug
				  hole, whose depth is greater than the largest surface dimension; or an improved
				  sinkhole; or a subsurface fluid distribution system.
General Authority:
NDCC
					 28-32-02
Law Implemented:
NDCC
					 38-22