TITLE 42

IRRIGATION AND DRAINAGE — WATER RIGHTS AND RECLAMATION

CHAPTER 40

GEOTHERMAL RESOURCES ACT

42-4010.  Powers and duties — Penalties — Enforcement procedure. (a) The water resource board may adopt, amend, or rescind reasonable rules, regulations, and construction standards necessary to the administration of this chapter in accordance with chapter 52, title 67, Idaho Code.

(b)  The board may require that owners or operators of wells or injection wells keep or cause to be kept well logs, core records, and drilling histories of such wells or injection wells. It may require that copies of such logs, records, and/or histories be filed with the director within a reasonable time after well completion. It may further require such other geologic, geochemical, or engineering plans, reports, or records as necessary for the administration of this chapter. Any reports, logs, records, or histories filed with the director shall be available for public inspection subject to disclosure according to chapter 1, title 74, Idaho Code, and shall be kept as confidential by the director for a period of one (1) year from well completion, provided however, that the director may use any such reports, logs, records, or histories in any action in any court to enforce the provisions of this chapter or any order or regulation adopted hereunder.

(c)  The director may enter onto private land at any time to inspect any well or geothermal resource development project to determine if such well or project is being constructed, operated, or maintained according to any applicable permits or to determine if the construction, operation, or maintenance of such well or project may involve a threat to life or property or an unreasonable risk to subsurface, surface, or atmospheric resources.

(d)  If the director finds that any person is constructing, operating or maintaining any well or injection well not in accordance with any applicable permit or in a fashion so as to involve an unreasonable risk of, or so as to cause, damage to life or property or subsurface, surface, or atmospheric resources, the director may issue an order to such person to correct or to stop such practices found to be improper and to mitigate any injury of any sort caused by such practices.

(e)  The director may enforce any provision of this chapter or any order or regulation issued or adopted pursuant hereto by an appropriate action in the district court. The director may bring an action in the district court to have enjoined any threatened noncompliance with any provision of this chapter, regulations, or orders of the director, or any threatened harm to life, property, or surface, subsurface, or atmospheric resources that would be caused by such noncompliance. It shall be the duty of the attorney general to institute and prosecute civil enforcement actions or injunctive actions as provided in this chapter.

(f)   The director of the department of water resources is hereby vested with the power and authority to enforce the provisions of chapter 40, title 42, Idaho Code, and rules and regulations promulgated pursuant to it. When the director of the department of water resources determines that any person is in substantial violation of any provision of this chapter or any rule, permit, certificate, condition of approval or order issued or promulgated pursuant to this chapter, the director may commence an administrative enforcement action by issuing a written notice of violation in accordance with the provisions of section 42-1701B, Idaho Code. A responsible or principal executive officer of any corporate person may be liable under this subsection if such corporate person is not in compliance with any provision of this chapter or with any valid order or regulation adopted pursuant hereto.

(g)  The director shall undertake such studies, investigations, or research programs as necessary for the proper administration of this chapter and in order to develop experience in and understanding of the entire field of geothermal resource exploration and development in both its technical and regulatory aspects. The director and board shall cooperate with other Idaho state agencies, the state institutions of higher learning, agencies of other states, and agencies of the federal government in the preparation of such investigations, studies, or research projects. The director and board may cooperate with the scientists at the Idaho national laboratory in their research, development, engineering and demonstration of geothermal projects.

(h)  The director may enter into cooperative agreements and memoranda of understanding with agencies of other states for the purpose of the administration of geothermal areas that are partially in Idaho and partially in one (1) or more other states.

History:

[42-4010, added 1972, ch. 301, sec. 11, p. 749; am. 1974, ch. 20, sec. 58, p. 533; am. 1974, ch. 297, sec. 3, p. 1753; am. 1987, ch. 347, sec. 17, p. 762; am. 1990, ch. 213, sec. 62, p. 530; am. 1998, ch. 173, sec. 13, p. 612; am. 2015, ch. 141, sec. 118, p. 467; am. 2021, ch. 65, sec. 7, p. 202.]