42 U.S.C. § 300h — Regulations for State programs

(a) Publication of proposed regulations (1) The Administrator must publish proposed rules for state underground injection control programs within 180 days of December 16, 1974. Within another 180 days after that, the Administrator must finalize those rules, with any changes the Administrator sees fit. The Administrator can amend these rules over time. (2) Any rule under this section must be proposed and finalized under the normal federal rulemaking process (section 553 of title 5), except that the Administrator must also give the public a chance for a hearing before finalizing it. While writing these rules, the Administrator must consult the Secretary, the National Drinking Water Advisory Council, other relevant federal agencies, and interested state agencies. (b) Minimum requirements; restrictions (1) The (a) regulations for state underground injection programs must set minimum requirements for effective programs that prevent injection which endangers drinking water sources, as defined in (d)(2). For a state program to be approved under section 300h–1, it must (A) ban, once the state's injection-control program takes effect, any underground injection not authorized by a state permit (though the rules can let a state authorize injection by general rule instead of individual permits); (B) require (i) for permit-based programs, that an applicant satisfy the state the injection won't endanger drinking water sources, and (ii) for rule-based programs, that no rule may authorize injection that endangers drinking water sources; (C) include inspection, monitoring, recordkeeping, and reporting requirements; and (D) apply (i) to federal-agency injections, as required by section 300j–6(b), and (ii) to injections by anyone else, whether or not on land owned or leased by the United States. (2) The Administrator's regulations under this section cannot set requirements that interfere with or block (A) injecting brine or other fluids brought to the surface in connection with oil or natural gas production or natural gas storage, or (B) injection for secondary or tertiary recovery of oil or natural gas — unless such a requirement is truly needed to make sure underground drinking water sources stay safe from that injection. (3)(A) The Administrator's regulations must allow for, or provide for considering, different geologic, hydrological, or historical conditions across different states and areas within a state. (3)(B)(i) In writing these regulations, the Administrator must, as much as feasible, avoid rules that would needlessly disrupt state underground injection programs that are already working and being enforced in a substantial number of states. (ii) For this purpose, a federal rule counts as "disrupting" a state program only if it would be impossible to follow both the federal rule and the state program at the same time. (iii) A federal rule counts as "unnecessary" only if, without that rule, underground drinking water sources still wouldn't be endangered by the injection. (3)(C) None of this changes the Administrator's basic duty to make sure underground drinking water sources are protected from any underground injection. (c) Temporary permits (1) On a governor's request, the Administrator can let a state that normally authorizes injection through individual permits issue temporary permits instead — without needing to meet the usual proof requirement in (b)(1)(B)(i) — lasting until 4 years after December 16, 1974, if (A) the Administrator finds the state proved it couldn't, and reasonably couldn't have, processed all its permit applications in time; (B) the Administrator decides the environmental harm from these temporary permits isn't unwarranted; (C) the temporary permits only cover wells that were already operating when the state's approved program first took effect, and for which there wasn't enough time to process a permit application; and (D) the Administrator decides the temporary permits require adequate safeguards that the Administrator has set by rule. (2) On a governor's request, and after giving reasonable notice and holding a hearing, the Administrator can also let a state issue one or more temporary permits — each covering one specific well and one specific fluid — without meeting the (b)(1)(B)(i) proof requirement, lasting until 4 years after December 16, 1974, if the state finds, based on the hearing record, (A) that the technology or other means to safely inject the fluid under the applicable program isn't generally available, considering cost; (B) that injecting the fluid would be less harmful to health than other available ways to dispose of the waste or make the desired product; and (C) that the state has used, and will keep using, the best available technology or other means to reduce the fluid's volume and toxicity and to minimize the injection's potential harm to public health. (d) "Underground injection" defined; endangerment of drinking water sources (1) "Underground injection" (A) means putting fluids underground through a well, and (B) excludes (i) injecting natural gas underground for storage, and (ii) injecting fluids or propping agents (other than diesel fuels) as part of hydraulic fracturing tied to oil, gas, or geothermal production. (2) Underground injection "endangers" drinking water sources if the injection could put a contaminant into underground water that supplies, or could reasonably be expected to supply, a public water system — and if that contaminant could make the system break a national primary drinking water regulation, or could otherwise harm people's health.