Underground Injection Control (UIC)
Program basics
Nebraska's UIC program is administered by the Nebraska Department of Environment and Energy (NDEE, formerly DEQ) under the federal Safe Drinking Water Act. UIC protects underground sources of drinking water (USDW) from injection. Wells are classified by what is injected: Class I hazardous or nonhazardous industrial waste, Class II oil and gas, Class III mineral extraction, Class IV hazardous waste into or above a USDW, and Class V all other injection wells.
Class V and driller relevance
Class V includes many shallow injection wells: stormwater drainage, geothermal return, aquifer storage and recovery, and some commercial or industrial disposal wells. Requirements include inventory or registration, proper construction, no migration of contaminants, and closure. Some Class V wells are banned, such as large-capacity cesspools and motor-vehicle waste disposal wells. A driller must not let a well become an unauthorized injection well.
Worked example
A car wash wants a shallow well to dispose of wash water. The owner calls it a “dry well.” That is an injection well, likely Class V, and it is not automatically legal. The driller should verify NDEE authorization and construction standards before drilling. If the water contains hazardous wastes or the well would inject into a USDW without controls, the project cannot proceed as proposed. Reasoning: the label “dry well” does not remove UIC jurisdiction.
Traps
- Assuming only deep industrial wells are UIC wells.
- Treating stormwater or geothermal return as exempt without checking.
- Ignoring closure requirements for an injection well.
- Confusing NDEE UIC approval with DNR well registration.