45-811.01. Underground storage facility permit

A. A person may apply to the director for a constructed underground storage facility permit or a managed underground storage facility permit and may operate an underground storage facility only pursuant to a permit.

B. A person applying to the director for a managed underground storage facility permit may request to have the facility designated as a facility that could add value to a national park, national monument or state park if that park or monument includes any portion of a natural channel of a stream or adjacent floodplain that would benefit from the facility.

C. The director may issue a permit to operate an underground storage facility if the director determines that all of the following apply:

1. The applicant has the technical and financial capability to construct and operate the facility.

2. Storage of the maximum amount of water that could be in storage at any one time at the facility is hydrologically feasible.

3. Storage at the facility will not cause unreasonable harm to land or other water users within the maximum area of impact of the maximum amount of water that could be in storage at any one time at the underground storage facility over the duration of the permit.

4. The applicant has agreed in writing to obtain any required floodplain use permit from the county flood control district before beginning any construction activities.

5. The director of environmental quality has determined that the facility is not in a location that will promote either the migration of a contaminant plume or the migration of a poor quality groundwater area so as to cause unreasonable harm or is not in a location that will result in pollutants being leached to the groundwater table so as to cause unreasonable harm, if the proposed water storage at the underground storage facility is exempt from the requirement for an aquifer protection permit under section 49-250, subsection B, paragraph 12, 13 or 24. For any facility exempt under section 49-250, subsection B, paragraph 24, the director of water resources, after consultation with the director of the department of environmental quality, may include in the permit any requirements, including operation, maintenance, monitoring, record keeping, reporting, contingency plan or remedial action requirements, as the director of water resources deems necessary.

D. The director may designate a managed underground storage facility as one that could add value to a national park, national monument or state park if the director finds that all of the following apply:

1. The applicant has agreed in writing to maintain a quantified, minimum base flow and annual discharge to the stream for the duration of the permit.

2. The project will benefit the groundwater basin as a whole.