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North Dakota

Underground Injection Control (UIC)

Agency North Dakota Department of Environmental Quality

The North Dakota Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) regulates Class I and Class V underground injection wells. Underground Injection Control (UIC) is listed under the Groundwater Protection program of DEQ's Division of Water Quality. DEQ describes an injection well as any bored, drilled or driven shaft or dug hole, where the depth is greater than the largest surface dimension, that is used to discharge fluids underground.

In a Phase I ESA

ASTM E1527-21 does not name injection well records among its standard record sources. They matter because DEQ's Class V describes fixtures a site visit can find.

  • Class V is the shallow class. DEQ says Class V wells inject nonhazardous fluids into or above an underground source of drinking water and are typically shallow, on-site disposal systems, such as floor and sink drains which discharge directly or indirectly to groundwater, dry wells, leach fields and similar types of drainage wells. Where a site visit finds floor drains, a dry well or a leach field, check DEQ's Class V records. DEQ says a drainfield is considered a horizontally placed injection system, and some drainfields are covered under the program.
  • Some systems are outside the program. DEQ says the program does not cover individual residential waste disposal systems that inject only sanitary waste, or commercial waste disposal systems that serve fewer than 20 persons and inject only sanitary waste.
  • Class I is industrial and municipal waste. DEQ says Class I covers the emplacement of hazardous and nonhazardous fluids (industrial and municipal wastes) into isolated formations beneath the lowermost underground source of drinking water, and that Class I wells are further regulated under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act.
  • Other classes are other agencies'. DEQ says Class II wells, which inject brines and other fluids associated with oil and gas production, and Class VI wells, for carbon dioxide storage, are regulated by the North Dakota Oil and Gas Division, and Class III wells, for solution mining of minerals, by the North Dakota Geological Survey. Its Data & Maps page says the North Dakota Industrial Commission is responsible for all other classes.

How complete DEQ's records are

In a note on a UIC wells dataset it dates 06-13, DEQ's Data & Maps page says DEQ maintains some records for Class I and Class V wells in the state. It says its data may not be up to date or an accurate representation of the state's UIC wells, and gives as the reasons that permits are not required to be filed with DEQ when wells are constructed and that change of ownership notifications are not required. Do not read an absence from DEQ's list as showing that no Class V well exists. The same page says that to request information about a specific UIC well, the township, range and section of the site is required.

The program's rules are chapter 33.1-25-01 of the North Dakota Administrative Code, Underground Injection Control Program.

Where to look a site up

Getting the file

DEQ takes open records requests at DEQOpenRecords@nd.gov, on its General Request Form for general records. Include the township, range and section. What else to put in a request is on the Open Records Requests page.

Sources

North Dakota Department of Environmental Quality pages, read October 13, 2026:

Maintained by Barrow. General reference only, not legal or professional advice. Barrow is not affiliated with any government agency, and neither Barrow nor the information as presented here is endorsed by any state or government agency. See how Barrow drafts the report