HB 1358 Summary

• Expands definition of "underground gathering pipeline" to include associated above-ground equipment such as pumps, compressors, storage, and monitoring equipment used to transport crude oil, natural gas, carbon dioxide, or produced water from production facilities.

• Requires operators of crude oil and produced water underground gathering pipelines placed into service after August 1, 2015 to provide engineering design drawings, inspector lists, and leak protection plans to the commission, and file independent inspector certificates of hydrostatic or pneumatic testing within 60 days of placement into service.

• Permits surface owners to request commission review of well temporarily abandoned status after seven years, with subsequent reviews allowed every two years following notice and hearing.

• Allows commission to release confidential well data regarding saltwater injection volumes and spill reports when more than ten barrels of fluid are released, and permits surface owners to share geographic information system database information.

• Transfers $1.5 million from the abandoned oil and gas well plugging and site reclamation fund to the oil and gas research fund for a university of North Dakota study on crude oil and produced water pipeline construction standards, monitoring systems, and leak analysis, with recommendations due December 1, 2015.

• Appropriates $500,000 from the reclamation fund for a pilot program to remediate salt contamination from waste pits reclaimed by trenching between 1951 and 1984 in north-central North Dakota.