section .1600 – well construction and completion

(a) Each oil or gas well, production facility, tank, tank battery, or pit shall comply with the following setback distances as measured from the center of a wellhead and the edge of the pit, production facility equipment, tank, or tank battery closest to the features below:

(1) occupied dwellings and high occupancy buildings: 650 feet;

(2) edge of a public road, highway, utility or railroad track right-of-way,

or other right-of-way: 100 feet;

(3) a perennial stream, river, watercourse, pond, lake, or other natural and artificial bodies of

water, including wetlands and trout stream: 200 feet;

(4) intermittent stream: 100 feet; and

(5) a public or private water well intended for human consumption or household purpose: 650 feet.

(b) The permittee shall ensure a minimum setback of 100 feet from the center each oil or gas wellhead, and the closest edge of a tank, tank battery, or pit to the edge of the mapped 100-year floodplain and floodway.

(c) The permittee shall ensure a minimum setback of 1,500 feet downgrade from each oil or gas wellhead, tank, tank battery, pit, or production facility to the edge of any surface water impoundment that serves as a municipal drinking water supply or to the edge of any river having a drainage area greater than 140 square miles and upstream of a municipal drinking water supply point. For surface water impoundments, the edge shall be measured from the nearest point of the most landward limit of the normal water level or the rooted herbaceous vegetation. For any river upstream of a municipal drinking water supply point, the edge shall be measured from the nearest, most landward limit of the bank or the rooted herbaceous vegetation.

(d) Nothing in this Rule prohibits a local government exercising its existing authority consistent with G.S. 113-415.1.

History Note: Authority G.S. 113-391(a)(5)d;

Eff. March 17, 2015.