49-241. Permit required to discharge
A. Unless otherwise provided by this article, any person who discharges or who owns
or operates a facility that discharges shall obtain an aquifer protection permit from the
director.
B. Unless exempted under section 49-250, or unless the director determines that the
facility will be designed, constructed and operated so that there will be no migration of
pollutants directly to the aquifer or to the vadose zone, the following are considered to
be discharging facilities and shall be operated pursuant to either an individual permit
or a general permit, including agricultural general permits, under this article:
1. Surface impoundments, including holding, storage settling, treatment or disposal
pits, ponds and lagoons.
2. Solid waste disposal facilities except for mining overburden and wall rock that
has not been and will not be subject to mine leaching operations.
3. Injection wells.
4. Land treatment facilities.
5. Facilities that add a pollutant to a salt dome formation, salt bed formation,
dry well or underground cave or mine.
6. Mine tailings piles and ponds.
7. Mine leaching operations.
8. Underground water storage facilities.
9. Sewage treatment facilities, including on-site wastewater treatment facilities.
10. Wetlands designed and constructed to treat municipal and domestic wastewater for
underground storage.
C. The director shall provide public notice and an opportunity for public comment
on any request for a determination from the director under subsection B of this section
that there will be no migration of pollutants from a facility. A public hearing may be
held at the discretion of the director if sufficient public comment warrants a hearing.
The director may inspect and may require reasonable conditions and appropriate monitoring
and reporting requirements for a facility managing pollutants that are determined not to
migrate under subsection B of this section. The director may identify types of
facilities, available technologies and technical criteria for facilities that will
qualify for such a determination. The director's determination may be revoked on
evidence that pollutants have migrated from the facility. The director may impose a
review fee for a determination under subsection B of this section. Any issuance, denial
or revocation of a determination may be appealed pursuant to section 49-323.
D. The director shall publish a list of the names and locations of existing
facilities that are required to obtain an aquifer protection permit. The director may
revise the list as needed. Any revised list shall contain deadlines for the submittal of
applications for aquifer protection permits, based on the degree of risk to the public
health and welfare and the environment and based on a work plan of the director designed
to process all applications for an aquifer protection permit no later than January 1,
2004 for nonmining facilities and no later than January 1, 2006 for mining facilities.
E. The director shall annually make the fee schedule for aquifer protection permit
applications available to the public on request and on the department's website, and a
list of the names and locations of the facilities that have filed applications for
aquifer protection permits, with a description of the status of each application, shall
be available to the public on request.
F. The director shall prescribe the procedures for aquifer protection permit
applications and fee collection under this section. The director shall deposit, pursuant
to sections 35-146 and 35-147, all monies collected under this section in the water
quality fee fund established by section 49-210 and may authorize expenditures from the
fund, subject to legislative appropriation, to pay reasonable and necessary costs of
processing and issuing permits and administering the registration program.
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