Colorado Code § 34-60-103

Definitions - rules
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As used in this article 60, unless the context otherwise
requires:
(1) "And" includes the word "or" and the use of the word "or" includes the word "and".
The use of the plural includes the singular and the use of the singular includes the plural.
(2) (a) "Carbon dioxide flow line" means a segment of pipe transferring injection carbon
dioxide between the wellhead of a class VI injection well and a pipeline regulated by the
pipeline and hazardous materials safety administration of the United States department of
transportation or the public utilities commission.
(b) "Carbon dioxide flow line" does not include pipelines regulated by the pipeline and
hazardous materials safety administration of the United States department of transportation or
the public utilities commission.
(3) "Class VI injection well" means a well drilled pursuant to a permit for a class VI
injection well issued under the federal "Safe Drinking Water Act", 42 U.S.C. sec. 300f et seq., as
amended.
(4) "Commission" means the energy and carbon management commission created in
section 34-60-104.3 (1).
(5) "Common source of supply" is synonymous with "pool" as defined in this section.
(6) (a) "Correlative rights" means that each owner and producer in a common pool or
source of supply of oil and gas must have an equal opportunity to obtain and produce the owner's
or producer's just and equitable share of the oil and gas underlying the pool or source of supply.
(b) As used in section 34-60-141, "correlative rights" means that each owner of a
sequestration estate must have an equal opportunity to utilize the owner's just and equitable share
of the underlying geologic storage resource.
(7) (a) "Cumulative impacts" means the effects on public health and the environment,
including the impacts to air quality, water quality, climate, noise, odor, wildlife, and biological
resources, caused by the incremental impacts that a proposed new or amended operation
regulated by the commission pursuant to this article 60 would have when added to the impacts
from other past, present, and reasonably foreseeable future development of any type on the
impact area or on a disproportionately impacted community.
(b) "Cumulative impacts" may include both adverse and beneficial environmental
impacts.
(c) This subsection (7) is effective on the effective date of the rules adopted pursuant to
section 34-60-106 (11)(d)(I).
(8) "Disproportionately impacted community" has the meaning set forth in section 24-4-
109 (2)(b)(II).
(9) "Division of parks and wildlife" means the division of parks and wildlife identified in
article 9 of title 33.
(10) "Energy and carbon management operations" means all operations regulated by the
commission.
(11) "Energy and carbon management operator" means any person that exercises the
right to control the conduct of energy and carbon management operations.
(12) "Exploration and production waste" means those wastes that are generated during
the drilling of and production from oil and gas wells; during the drilling of and production from
wells for deep geothermal operations, as defined in section 37-90.5-103 (3), regulated by the
commission pursuant to article 90.5 of title 37; or during primary field operations and that are
exempt from regulation as hazardous wastes under Subtitle C of the federal "Resource
Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976", 42 U.S.C. secs. 6901 to 6934, as amended.
(13) "Gas" means all natural gases and all hydrocarbons not defined in this section as oil.
(14) "Geologic storage" means the injection and underground sequestration of injection
carbon dioxide in a geologic storage resource pursuant to a valid class VI permit issued pursuant
to the federal "Safe Drinking Water Act", 42 U.S.C. sec. 300f et seq., as amended.
(15) (a) "Geologic storage facility" means the specific part of a geologic storage resource
that is utilized for geologic storage, together with the well or wells and all surface equipment and
disturbances associated with the geologic storage operations at the geologic storage location.
(b) "Geologic storage facility" does not include pipelines regulated by the pipeline and
hazardous materials safety administration of the United States department of transportation or
the public utilities commission.
(16) "Geologic storage location" means a definable area where a geologic storage
operator uses or intends to use the surface of the land in order to operate a geologic storage
facility.
(17) "Geologic storage operations" means activities performed for the purpose of
engaging in geologic storage in the state, including:
(a) The following activities related to the operation of a geologic storage facility:
(I) Drilling test bores and monitoring wells;
(II) Siting;
(III) Installing and operating carbon dioxide flow lines;
(IV) Drilling;
(V) Deepening;
(VI) Recompleting;
(VII) Reworking; and
(VIII) Abandoning;
(b) Injecting injection carbon dioxide for the purpose of geologic storage;
(c) Any constructing, site preparing, or reclaiming activities associated with the
activities described in subsection (17)(a) or (17)(b) of this section; and
(d) Any other activities determined by the commission to be necessary to protect and
minimize adverse impacts associated with geologic storage to public health, safety, welfare, the
environment, and natural resources.
(18) "Geologic storage operator" means any person that exercises the right to control the
conduct of geologic storage operations.
(19) (a) "Geologic storage resource" means pore space necessary for geologic storage.
(b) "Geologic storage resource" does not include an underground source of drinking
water, as defined in 40 CFR 144.3.
(20) "Geologic storage unit" means a unit of one or more geologic storage resources or
parts of a geologic storage resource established by the commission pursuant to section 34-60-
141.
(21) "Geologic storage unit area" means any geologic storage resource, or part of a
geologic storage resource, included in a geologic storage unit.
(22) "Impact area" means a defined geographic area or areas in which operations
regulated by the commission have the potential to contribute to cumulative impacts. The
commission shall determine the impact area for a particular proposed operation based on the
nature, intensity, and scope of the operation in its proposed location and the geographic extent of
potential impacts.
(23) "Impacts to climate" means the quantification of emissions of greenhouse gases, as
defined in section 25-7-140 (6), that occur from sources that are controlled or owned by the
energy and carbon management operator and from reasonably foreseeable truck traffic, as well
as reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, associated with the proposed operation.
(24) "Injection carbon dioxide" means carbon dioxide, including its derivatives and all
mixtures, combinations, and phases, whether liquid, gaseous, super-critical, or solid, and
whether stripped, segregated, or divided from any other fluid stream, including all incidental
associated substances derived from the source materials.
(25) "Local government" means a:
(a) Municipality or city and county within whose boundaries a surface location for
energy and carbon management operations is sited or proposed to be sited; or
(b) County, if a surface location for energy and carbon management operations is sited
or proposed to be sited within the boundaries of the county but is not located within a
municipality or city and county.
(26) "Minimize adverse impacts" means, to the extent necessary and reasonable to
protect public health, safety, and welfare; the environment; and wildlife resources, to:
(a) Avoid adverse impacts from energy and carbon management operations; and
(b) Minimize and mitigate the extent and severity of those impacts that cannot be
avoided.
(27) "Oil" means crude petroleum oil and any other hydrocarbons, regardless of
gravities, that are produced at the well in liquid form by ordinary production methods and that
are not the result of condensation of gas before or after it leaves the reservoir.
(28) "Oil and gas facility" means equipment or improvements used or installed at an oil
and gas location for the exploration, production, withdrawal, treatment, or processing of crude
oil, condensate, exploration and production waste, or gas.
(29) "Oil and gas location" means a definable area where an oil and gas operator has
disturbed or intends to disturb the land surface in order to locate an oil and gas facility.
(30) "Oil and gas operations" means exploration for oil and gas, including:
(a) The conduct of seismic operations and the drilling of test bores;
(b) The siting, drilling, deepening, recompletion, reworking, or abandonment of an oil
and gas well, underground injection well, or gas storage well;
(c) Production operations related to any well described in subsection (30)(b) of this
section, including the installation of flow lines and gathering systems;
(d) The generation, transportation, storage, treatment, or disposal of exploration and
production wastes; and
(e) Any construction, site preparation, or reclamation activities associated with the
operations described in this subsection (30).
(31) "Operator" means any person that exercises the right to control the conduct of oil
and gas operations.
(32) "Owner" means the person that has the right to drill into and produce from a pool
and to appropriate the oil or gas the person produces from the pool either for the person or others
or for the person and others, including the owner of a well capable of producing oil or gas, or
both.
(33) "Parks and wildlife commission" means the parks and wildlife commission created
in section 33-9-101.
(34) "Permit" means any permit, sundry notice, notice of intention, or other approval,
including any conditions of approval, that is granted, issued, or approved by the commission.
(35) "Person" means any natural person, corporation, association, partnership, receiver,
trustee, executor, administrator, guardian, fiduciary, or other representative of any kind and
includes any department, agency, or instrumentality of the state or any governmental subdivision
of the department, agency, or instrumentality of the state.
(36) "Pool" means an underground reservoir containing a common accumulation of oil
or gas, or both. Each zone of a general structure, which zone is completely separated from any
other zone in the structure, is covered by the word "pool" as used in this article 60.
(37) "Pore space" means a cavity or void, whether natural or artificially created, in a
subsurface stratum.
(38) "Producer" means the owner of a well capable of producing oil or gas, or both.
(39) "Reasonably foreseeable future development" means development that has not yet
been undertaken for which an applicable local, state, or federal agency has received an
application or issued a permit. Future development is reasonably foreseeable only if information
related to the permit is publicly available.
(40) "Sequestration estate" means a portion of a geologic storage resource.
(41) "Surface owner" means any person owning all or part of the surface of land upon
which energy and carbon management operations are conducted, as shown by the tax records of
the county in which the tract of land is situated, or any person with such rights under a recorded
contract to purchase.
(42) "Underground natural gas storage cavern" means a facility that stored natural gas in
an underground cavern or abandoned mine on or before January 1, 2000. An underground
natural gas storage cavern includes all surface or subsurface rights and appurtenances associated
with the underground injection, storage, and withdrawal of natural gas, but does not include any
compressor stations or pipeline facilities subject to regulation by the public utilities commission
or the United States department of transportation.
(43) "Waste", as applied to gas:
(a) Includes the escape, blowing, or releasing, directly or indirectly into the open air, of
gas from wells productive of gas only, or gas in an excessive or unreasonable amount from wells
producing oil or both oil and gas; and the production of gas in quantities or in such manner as
unreasonably reduces reservoir pressure or, subject to subsection (43)(b) of this section,
unreasonably diminishes the quantity of oil or gas that ultimately may be produced; excepting
gas that is reasonably necessary in the drilling, completing, testing, and in furnishing power for
the production of wells; and
(b) Does not include the nonproduction of gas from a formation if necessary to protect
public health, safety, and welfare; the environment; or wildlife resources as determined by the
commission.
(44) "Waste", as applied to oil:
(a) Includes underground waste; inefficient, excessive, or improper use or dissipation of
reservoir energy, including gas energy and water drive; surface waste; open-pit storage; and
waste incident to the production of oil in excess of the producer's aboveground storage facilities
and lease and contractual requirements, but excluding storage, other than open-pit storage,
reasonably necessary for building up or maintaining crude stocks and products of crude stocks
for consumption, use, and sale; and
(b) Does not include the nonproduction of oil from a formation if necessary to protect
public health, safety, and welfare; the environment; or wildlife resources as determined by the
commission.
(45) "Waste", in addition to the meanings as set forth in subsections (43) and (44) of this
section:
(a) Means, subject to subsection (45)(b) of this section:
(I) Physical waste, as that term is generally understood in the oil and gas industry;
(II) The locating, spacing, drilling, equipping, operating, or producing of any oil or gas
well or wells in a manner that causes or tends to cause reduction in quantity of oil or gas
ultimately recoverable from a pool under prudent and proper operations or that causes or tends to
cause unnecessary or excessive surface loss or destruction of oil or gas; and
(III) Abuse of the correlative rights of any owner in a pool due to nonuniform,
disproportionate, unratable, or excessive withdrawals of oil or gas from the pool, causing
reasonably avoidable drainage between tracts of land or resulting in one or more producers or
owners in the pool producing more than an equitable share of the oil or gas from the pool; and
(b) Does not include the nonproduction of oil or gas from a formation if necessary to
protect public health, safety, and welfare; the environment; or wildlife resources as determined
by the commission.
(46) "Wildlife resources" means fish, wildlife, and their aquatic and terrestrial habitats.

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