Begin Main Content Area

Waste

Waste Requirements and Information for the Oil and Gas Industry

Oil and Gas Well Drilling and Production Wastes (Residual Waste Generators)

List of Municipal Waste Landfills and Resource Recovery Facilities

Chapter 78 regulations (78.18) require two permits for any disposal or enhanced recovery well operating in Pennsylvania. Initially, since Pennsylvania does not have primacy to directly permit underground injection wells, applicants must first submit a well permit application and required documentation to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Upon issuance of a permit from EPA, applicants must then obtain a well permit from the Department under Chapter 78.11. If the well is an existing well, the Department would re-issue the permit as an injection well with special conditions granting authority under the Solid Waste Management Act and the Clean Streams Law.

If the application is for a well that does not yet exist, the applicant must submit an application to the Department for a new well. In all cases, the applicant must submit to the Department, in addition to the DEP permit application, a site-specific Erosion and Sedimentation Plan, a Control and Disposal Plan, and a copy of the EPA Underground Injection Control (UIC) permit.

For additional information on EPA's UIC Program, please visit:
http://www.epa.gov/reg3wapd/uic/index.htm

Disposal Approval Forms

Other Requirements

A person or municipality that generates more than an average of 2,200 pounds of residual waste per generating location per month based on generation in the previous year is required to:

Drilling Mud Support Operations