Existing law establishes the Geologic Energy Management Division within the Department of Conservation under the direction of the State Oil and Gas Supervisor, who is required to supervise the drilling, operation, maintenance, and abandonment of oil and gas wells, and the operation, maintenance, and removal or abandonment of tanks and facilities attendant to oil and gas production within an oil and gas field so as to prevent damage to life, health, property, and natural resources. Existing law requires the operator of a well to file a written notice of intention to commence drilling with, and prohibits any drilling until approval is given by, the supervisor or district deputy. Existing law also requires an operator of a well to file a notice of intention with, and to receive approval from, the supervisor or a district deputy for the deepening or redrilling of wells, the plugging of wells, or the permanent altering of the casing of wells.

Existing law prohibits the division from approving any notice of intention within a health protection zone, defined as the area within 3,200 feet of sensitive receptors, except for approvals necessary for specified purposes. Existing law defines sensitive receptors to include certain residential, educational, health care, detention, or business facilities, as provided. Existing law prohibits the construction or operation of new production facilities in health protection zones, except as provided.

This bill would instead limit the prohibition on the division’s approval of notices of intention within health protection zones to notices of intention for new wells, as defined. The bill would repeal the prohibition on the construction or operation of new production facilities in health protection zones.

Existing law requires every operator who submits a notice of intention, except as provided, to submit a sensitive receptor inventory and map to the division or a statement certifying there are no sensitive receptors located within 3,200 feet of the wellhead location, as provided.

This bill would instead limit that requirement to submit a sensitive receptor inventory and map or certification to an operator who submits a notice of intention for a new well.

Under existing law, if a notice of intention is approved within a health protection zone in order to comply with a court order, the approval shall require the operator of the oil or gas well to provide an individual indemnity bond sufficient to pay the full cost of properly plugging and abandoning the operator’s well or wells, and decommissioning any attendant production facilities in the health protection zone.

This bill would instead limit that bonding requirement to a notice of intention for a new well that is approved within a health protection zone in order to comply with a court order, as provided.