Definitions

The terms used throughout this chapter have the same meaning as in North Dakota Century Code chapter 38-19, except: 1. "Closed-loop system" means any geothermal energy extraction facility, vertical, horizontal, or otherwise, in which a fluid is permanently confined within pipe or tubing and does not come in contact with the outside environment. 2. "Commission" means the industrial commission of this state. 3. "Contaminant" means any physical, chemical, biological, or radiological substance or matter in water. 4. "Deep well" means any well drilled into rocks older than the greenhorn formation or which encounters brackish or saline formation waters to develop or produce geothermal energy. 5. "Injection well" means a well into which fluids are being injected. 6. "Open-loop system" means any geothermal energy extraction facility in which water is extracted for heating or cooling purposes and is reinjected into the subsurface or disposed of at the surface. 7. "Person" means and includes 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 of any governmental subdivision thereof. 8. "Shallow well" means any well drilled into rocks younger than the belle fourche formation and does not encounter saline or brackish formation waters to develop or produce geothermal energy. 9. "Substantial modification" means the construction or installation of any addition, or any restoration or renovation, of a geothermal energy extraction facility which increases or decreases its heating or cooling capacity, significantly alters its physical configuration, or impairs or improves its physical integrity. In all cases, the determination of "substantial modification" must be made by the state geologist. 10. "Underground source of drinking water" means an aquifer or its portion which supplies drinking water for human consumption or in which the ground water contains fewer than ten thousand milligrams per liter total dissolved solids. 11. "Well" means a bored, drilled or driven shaft, or a dug hole, whose depth is greater than the largest surface dimension.