Register April 2023 No. 808
Chapter NR 815
INJECTION WELLS
Subchapter I — General
Subchapter II — Injection Well Classes and Underground Sources of Drinking Water
NR 815.04 Classification of injection wells.
NR 815.05 Underground source of drinking water.
Subchapter III — Regulated Activities
NR 815.07 Approval of injection wells.
NR 815.08 Reporting of injection wells.
NR 815.09 Operation of injection wells.
NR 815.10 Closure of injection wells.
Subchapter IV — Additional Requirements by Well Class
NR 815.11 Class V well injection.
Subchapter V — Enforcement
NR 815.12 Visitorial powers of the department.
NR 815.01
NR 815.01 Purpose. The purpose of this chapter is to establish uniform minimum standards and methods in conformity with s.
281.17 (8), Stats., for the following:
NR 815.01(1)
(1) Construction or use of a well for the purpose of placing a fluid underground.
NR 815.01(2)
(2) Protection of underground sources of drinking water, aquifers and groundwater from contamination that may occur as a result of the use of an injection well.
NR 815.01 History
History: CR 01-104: cr.
Register October 2004 No. 586, eff. 11-1-04.
NR 815.02
NR 815.02 Applicability. The provisions of this chapter apply to new and existing injection wells as follows:
NR 815.02(1)
(1)
Specific inclusions. Injection wells that are governed by this chapter include, but are not limited to:
NR 815.02(1)(a)
(a) Any injection well on a drilling platform that is located within the jurisdictional boundaries of the state.
NR 815.02(1)(b)
(b) Except as provided in sub.
(2), any well that is constructed or used to place a fluid underground.
NR 815.02(1)(c)
(c) Any well used by a generator of hazardous waste, or by the owner or operator of a hazardous waste management facility, to dispose of a fluid containing hazardous waste. This includes the disposal of hazardous waste into a waste disposal system that would otherwise be a septic system or cesspool regardless of the capacity of the waste disposal system.
NR 815.02(1)(d)
(d) Any septic system, cesspool or other well that is used by a multiple-family dwelling, multiple dwellings, community system or regional system to place a fluid underground.
NR 815.02(2)
(2)
Specific exclusions. The following are not governed by this chapter:
NR 815.02(2)(a)
(a) Any injection well on a drilling platform or other site that is located in its entirety beyond the jurisdictional boundaries of the state.
NR 815.02(2)(b)
(b) Any private onsite wastewater treatment system approved according to the provisions of ch.
SPS 383 that is used to dispose of sanitary waste from an individual single-family dwelling.
NR 815.02(2)(c)
(c) Any well that is not used to place a fluid underground.
NR 815.02 History
History: CR 01-104: cr.
Register October 2004 No. 586, eff. 11-1-04; correction in (2) (b) made under s.
13.92 (4) (b) 7., Stats.,
Register January 2012 No. 673.
NR 815.03
NR 815.03 Definitions. In this chapter:
NR 815.03(1)
(1) “Approval" means any of the following: authorization by administrative rule, written letter of authorization or issuance of a permit.
NR 815.03(2)
(2) “Aquifer" means a geological layer consisting of unconsolidated material, usually sand or gravel or both, or bedrock lying below the ground surface that is entirely or partially saturated with water and permeable enough to allow water to be extracted, as from a well.
NR 815.03(3)
(3) “Backfill" means a substance containing, but not limited to, any of the following: sand, gravel, cement, mill tailings, mill refuse, fly ash or other solids used as part of the mining process or for the purpose of closing a mine shaft or reclaiming an area subjected to mining activities.
NR 815.03(4)
(4) “Bedrock" means any naturally formed consolidated or coherent material of the earth's crust, composed of one or more minerals, rock fragments or organic material that underlies any soil or other unconsolidated surficial material or is exposed at the surface. Bedrock includes, but is not limited to limestone, dolomite, sandstone, shale and igneous and metamorphic crystalline rock, including granite, rhyolite, quartzite, gabbro, basalt, gneiss, schist, diorite and greenstone.
NR 815.03(5)
(5) “Borehole" means a circular hole that is deeper than it is wide, constructed in earth material for the purpose of either installing a well or obtaining geologic or groundwater related data.
NR 815.03 Note
Note: The department recognizes a borehole to be a type of a drillhole.
NR 815.03(6)
(6) “By-product solids" means waste materials from the animal product or food processing industry including, but not limited to remains of butchered animals, paunch manure and vegetable waste materials such as leaves, cuttings, peelings and actively fermenting sweet corn silage.
NR 815.03(7)
(7) “Cesspool" means a drywell that solely receives untreated sanitary waste and which sometimes has an open bottom or perforated sides or both.
NR 815.03 Note
Note: As used in this chapter, the term includes those excavations that are defined as cesspools in s.
SPS 381.01 (53).
NR 815.03(8)
(8) “Closure" means ceasing the discharge of a fluid to a well.
NR 815.03(9)
(9) “Conversion" means a change in the operation of an injection well that results in a change in the existing classification of the injection well or results in a change in the injection well's type designation within a specific class of injection wells.
NR 815.03(10)
(10) “Department" means the department of natural resources.
NR 815.03 Note
Note: “Discharge" in s.
292.01 (3), Stats., means, but is not limited to, any of the following: spilling, leaking, pumping, pouring, placing, emitting, emptying or dumping.
NR 815.03(12)
(12) “Domestic wastewater" means the wastewater normally discharged from plumbing facilities in private dwellings or commercial domestic establishments and includes, but is not limited to sanitary, bath, laundry, dishwashing, garbage disposal and cleaning wastes.
NR 815.03 Note
Note: A commercial domestic establishment is a business providing lodging facilities such as, but not limited to, a motel, hotel, boarding house or assisted-living center.
NR 815.03(13)
(13) “Drillhole" means an excavation, opening or driven point well deeper than it is wide that extends more than 10 feet below the ground surface.
NR 815.03(14)
(14) “Drywell" means a well, other than an improved sinkhole or subsurface fluid distribution system, that is completed above the water table so that its bottom or sides are typically dry except when receiving or draining fluids.
NR 815.03(15)
(15) “Dwelling" means a structure, or that part of a structure, which is used or intended to be used as a home, residence or sleeping place by one person or by 2 or more persons maintaining a common household, to the exclusion of all others.
NR 815.03(16)
(16) “Endangerment" means the movement of a fluid containing any substance into an underground source of drinking water, if the presence of the substance may cause a violation of a primary drinking water maximum contaminant level established in
40 CFR part 142 or otherwise adversely affect the health of persons.
NR 815.03 Note
Note: Endangerment, as it applies to Class V injection wells that are not prohibited under subchapter III, is any exceedance of an enforcement standard established under ch.
160, Stats., when measured at a point of standards application as defined in s.
160.01 (5), Stats.
NR 815.03(17)
(17) “Existing injection well" means any injection well constructed or in use prior to November 1, 2004.
NR 815.03(18)
(18) “Fluid" means any material or substance that flows or moves whether a semisolid, liquid, sludge, gas or any other form or state.
NR 815.03(19)
(19) “Formation" means a body of consolidated or unconsolidated geologic materials characterized by a degree of lithologic homogeneity that is prevailingly, but not necessarily, tabular and may be mapped on the earth's surface or traced in the subsurface.
NR 815.03(20)
(20) “Generator" means the person responsible for an act or process that produces hazardous waste.
NR 815.03 Note
Note: “Groundwater" in s.
160.01 (4), Stats., means any of the waters of the state, as defined in s.
281.01 (18), Stats., occurring in a saturated subsurface geological formation of rock or soil.
NR 815.03 Note
Note: “Hazardous waste" in s.
291.01 (7), Stats., means any solid waste identified by the department as hazardous waste under s.
291.05 (1),
(2) or
(4), Stats.
NR 815.03 Note
Note: “Hazardous waste facility" in s.
291.01 (8), Stats., means a site or structure for the treatment, storage or disposal of hazardous waste and includes all of the contiguous property under common ownership or control surrounding the site or structure.
NR 815.03(24)
(24) “Improved sinkhole" means a naturally occurring karst depression or opening, or any other natural crevice found in volcanic terrain or other geologic settings, that has been modified by a person for the purpose of dispersing or otherwise discharging fluids into the subsurface.
NR 815.03(25)
(25) “Injection well" means a well that is used to place a fluid underground.
NR 815.03(26)
(26) “Injection zone" means a geological formation, a portion of a formation or a group of formations that is intersected by a well and that receives or may receive a fluid from an injection well.
