Arizona Laws 27-667. Relationship of geothermal resources to water laws
A. Geothermal resources and their development shall be exempt from the water laws of this state unless either:
Terms Used In Arizona Laws 27-667
- Geothermal resources: means :
(a) All products of geothermal processes embracing indigenous steam, hot water and hot brines. See Arizona Laws 27-651
- Operator: means any person drilling, maintaining, operating, pumping or in control of any well, and includes the owner, when any well is or has been or is about to be operated or under the direction of the owner. See Arizona Laws 27-651
- Well: means any well drilled in search of geothermal resources or any development well on lands in areas proved to be underlain by one or more formations containing geothermal resources or reasonably presumed to contain geothermal resources or any well drilled for information purposes, or any producing well or reentered abandoned well used for the injection of fluids into the geothermal formation or disposition of fluids into nongeothermal formations, or any well drilled for the purpose of stimulating the heat of a formation or for the creation of heat in a formation by nuclear or any other form of energy. See Arizona Laws 27-651
1. Such resources are commingled with surface waters or groundwaters of this state.
2. Such development causes impairment of or damage to the groundwater supply.
B. In the development of geothermal resources, any well drilled to obtain and use groundwater, as defined in section 45-101, shall be subject to the water laws of this state.
C. An operator shall notify the director of water resources of any well which is drilled or abandoned. The director may prescribe rules and regulations relating to the disposition of abandoned wells.