Utah Code § 73-22-1 Short title.
73-22-1. Short title.
This chapter shall be known and may be cited as the "Utah Geothermal Resource Conservation Act."
Enacted by Chapter 188, 1981 General Session
Utah Geothermal Resource Conservation Act
Utah Code tit. 73, ch. 73-22
in effectUtah Code § 73-22-2 Purpose of chapter.
73-22-2. Purpose of chapter.
The purpose of this chapter is to:
(1) foster, encourage, and promote the discovery, development, production, use, and disposal of geothermal resources for the purpose of electricity production in such manner as will prevent waste, protect correlative rights, and safeguard the natural environment and the public welfare; and
(2) authorize, encourage, and provide for the development and operation of geothermal resource properties for the purpose of electricity production in such manner that the maximum ultimate economic recovery of geothermal resources may be obtained through, among other things, agreements for cooperative development, production, injection, and pressure maintenance operations.
Amended by Chapter 477, 2026 General Session
Utah Code § 73-22-3 Definitions.
73-22-3. Definitions.
As used in this chapter:
(1) "Correlative rights" mean the rights of a geothermal owner in a geothermal area to produce without waste the geothermal owner's just and equitable share of the geothermal resource underlying the geothermal area.
(2) "Division" means the Division of Water Rights within the Department of Natural Resources.
(3) "Geothermal area" means the general land area that is underlain or reasonably appears to be underlain by a geothermal resource.
(4) "Geothermal fluid" means water and steam at temperatures greater than 100 degrees centigrade naturally present in a geothermal system.
(5)
(a) "Geothermal resource" means:
(i) the natural heat of the earth at temperatures greater than 100 degrees centigrade; and
(ii) the energy, in whatever form, including pressure, present in, resulting from, created by, or that may be extracted from that natural heat, directly or through a material medium using any type of application including a conventional hydrothermal, enhanced geothermal, or advanced geothermal system.
(b) "Geothermal resource" does not include a geothermal fluid.
(6) "Geothermal system" means a strata, pool, reservoir, or other geologic formation containing a geothermal resource.
(7) "Material medium" means a geothermal fluid, or water and other substance artificially introduced into a geothermal system to serve as a heat transfer medium.
(8) "Operator" means a person drilling, maintaining, operating, producing, or in control of a well.
(9) "Owner" means a person who has the right to drill into, produce, and make use of a geothermal resource.
(10)
(a) "Waste" means an inefficient, excessive, or improper production, use, or dissipation of a geothermal resource.
(b) "Waste" includes:
(i) a transporting or storage method that causes or tends to cause unnecessary surface loss of a geothermal resource; or
(ii) locating, spacing, constructing, equipping, operating, producing, or venting of a well in a manner that results or tends to result in unnecessary surface loss or in reducing the ultimate economic recovery of a geothermal resource.
(11) "Water right" means:
(a) a right to use water, including a geothermal fluid, evidenced by a means identified in Subsection 73-1-10(1)(a); or
(b) a right to use water, including a geothermal fluid, under an approved application:
(i) to appropriate; or
(ii) for a change of use.
(12) "Well" means a well drilled, converted, or reactivated for the discovery, testing, production, or subsurface injection of a geothermal resource.
Amended by Chapter 477, 2026 General Session
Utah Code § 73-22-4 Ownership of geothermal resource -- Water right -- Lands subject to chapter.
73-22-4. Ownership of geothermal resource -- Water right -- Lands subject to chapter.
(1) Ownership of a geothermal resource derives from an interest in the surface of land.
(2) A person that owns the surface of the land also owns title to the geothermal resources, notwithstanding the severance or conveyance of the mineral estate, unless the person that owns the surface of the land expressly conveys or reserves a geothermal resource by a recorded deed or other instrument conveying title.
(3)
(a) Subsections (1) and (2) do not apply to school and institutional trust lands as defined in Section 53C-1-103.
(b) Section 53C-2-401 governs the reservation of a geothermal resource in school and institutional trust lands.
(c) For school and institutional trust mineral estate owned as of May 6, 2026, the state owns title to the geothermal resource unless title to the geothermal resource has been expressly conveyed by deed to another party by the state in accordance with Section 53C-2-401.
(4) Subject to Section 73-22-8, a person may not use a geothermal fluid without a water right.
(5) This chapter shall apply to lands in the state, including federal and Indian lands to the extent allowed by law. When federal or Indian lands are committed to a unit agreement involving lands subject to federal or Indian jurisdiction, the division may, with respect to the unit agreement, consider this chapter complied with if the unit operations are regulated by the United States and the division finds that conservation of geothermal resources and prevention of waste are accomplished under the unit agreement.
Amended by Chapter 477, 2026 General Session
Utah Code § 73-22-5 Jurisdiction of division -- Hearings -- Subpoena power -- Restraining violations -- Actions for damages against violators unaffected.
73-22-5. Jurisdiction of division -- Hearings -- Subpoena power -- Restraining violations -- Actions for damages against violators unaffected.
(1) The division has jurisdiction and authority over all persons and property, public and private, necessary to enforce the provisions of this chapter and may enact, issue, and enforce necessary rules and orders to carry out the requirements of this chapter.
(2)
(a) Any affected person may apply for a hearing before the division, or the division may initiate proceedings upon any question relating to the administration of this chapter by following the procedures and requirements of Title 63G, Chapter 4, Administrative Procedures Act.
(b) The Division of Water Rights shall comply with the procedures and requirements of Title 63G, Chapter 4, Administrative Procedures Act, in its adjudicative proceedings.
(3) The division shall have the power to summon witnesses, to administer oaths, and to require the production of records, books, and documents for examination at any hearing or investigation conducted by it.
(4)
(a) If any person fails or refuses to comply with a subpoena issued by the division, or if any witness fails or refuses to testify about any matter regarding which the witness may be interrogated, the division may petition any district court in the state to issue an order compelling the person to:
(i) comply with the subpoena and attend before the division;
(ii) produce any records, books, and documents covered by the subpoena; or
(iii) to give testimony.
(b) The court may punish failure to comply with the order as contempt.
(5)
(a) Whenever it appears that any person is violating or threatening to violate any provision of this chapter, or any rule or order made under this chapter, the division may file suit in the name of the state to restrain that person from continuing the violation or from carrying out the threat of violation.
(b) Venue for the action is in the district court in the county where any defendant resides or in the county where the violation is alleged to have occurred.
(6)
(a) Nothing in this chapter, no suit by or against the division, and no violation charged or asserted against any person under this chapter, or any rule or order issued under it, shall impair, abridge, or delay any cause of action for damages that any person may have or assert against any person violating this chapter, or any rule or order issued under it.
(b) Any person so damaged by the violation may sue for and recover whatever damages that the person is otherwise entitled to receive.
Amended by Chapter 382, 2008 General Session
Utah Code § 73-22-6 Information required concerning resource development -- Confidentiality -- Regulation of wells -- Surety bonds -- Inspection.
73-22-6. Information required concerning resource development -- Confidentiality -- Regulation of wells -- Surety bonds -- Inspection.
(1) The division may require a person to:
(a) identify the location and ownership of a well or producing geothermal lease;
(b) file with the division a notice of intent to drill, redrill, renovate, deepen, permanently alter the casing of, test, maintain, or abandon any well and obtain the division's approval of the notice of intent before the person commences operations;
(c) subject to Subsection (4), keep a well log or record and file a copy of the well log or record with the division;
(d) space, drill, case, test, operate, produce, or abandon a well so as to prevent:
(i) a geothermal resource, water, gas, or other fluid from escaping into strata:
(A) other than the strata in which the resource, water, gas, or fluid is found; and
(B) unless in accordance with a subsurface injection program approved by the division;
(ii) pollution of surface and groundwater;
(iii) premature cooling of a geothermal system by water encroachment or otherwise that tends to reduce the ultimate economic recovery of the geothermal resource;
(iv) a blowout, cave-in, or seepage; and
(v) unreasonable disturbance or injury to neighboring properties, prior water rights, human life, health, and the environment;
(e) subject to Subsection (2), if an operator, file an individual surety bond with the division for a new well drilled or an abandoned well redrilled;
(f) if an owner or operator, measure geothermal production according to standards set by the division and maintain complete and accurate production records or certified copies of the records that the owner or operator:
(i) keeps for a period of five years; and
(ii) makes available for examination by the division at reasonable times; and
(g) file with the division any other reasonable report that the division requires regarding geothermal operations within the state.
(2)
(a) With the consent of the division, a person may terminate or cancel a surety bond filed with the division in conformance with this chapter and relieve the surety of the obligations under the surety bond when the well or wells covered by the surety bond have been properly abandoned or another valid surety bond has been substituted for the surety bond.
(b) The amount of surety bond required by this section shall be determined by the division to be a reasonable amount.
(c) In lieu of an individual surety bond for separate wells, the operator may file a blanket surety bond in an amount set by the division to cover all the operator's drilling, redrilling, deepening, maintenance, or abandonment activities for wells.
(d) An operator shall execute a surety bond filed with the division by the operator as principal and condition the surety bond on compliance with division regulations in drilling, redrilling, deepening, maintaining, or abandoning a well covered by the surety bond.
(e) A surety bond filed with the division shall secure the state against losses, charges, and expenses incurred by the state to obtain the compliance described in Subsection (2)(d) by the principal named in the surety bond.
(3) The division may enter onto private or public land at any time to inspect a well or geothermal resource development project to determine if the well or project is being constructed, operated, or maintained according to any applicable permits or to determine if the construction, operation, or maintenance of the well or project may involve an unreasonable risk to life, health, property, the environment or subsurface, surface, or atmospheric resources.
(4)
(a) A well log or record described in Subsection (1)(c) is a public record when filed with the division, unless the owner or operator requests, in writing, that the division holds the well log or record as protected in accordance with Subsection 63G-2-305(1) or (2) for a period established by the division, not to exceed the earlier of the following, as determined by the division:
(i) five years from the date of production or injection for other than testing purposes;
(ii) two years from the date of abandonment; or
(iii) two years from the date of completion of a geothermal monitoring, exploration, investigation, or test well project that does not directly transition into production development.
(b) A well log or record held protected by the division under Subsection (4)(a) is open to inspection by a person authorized in writing to inspect the well log or record by the owner or operator.
(c) The status of a well log or record as protected under Subsection (4)(a) does not restrict inspection by:
(i) a state officer charged with regulating well operations; or
(ii) an authorized official of the State Tax Commission for purposes of tax assessment.
Amended by Chapter 477, 2026 General Session
Utah Code § 73-22-7 Cooperative or unit operation of geothermal area -- Order -- Plan of operation -- Approval of owners -- Amendment.
73-22-7. Cooperative or unit operation of geothermal area -- Order -- Plan of operation -- Approval of owners -- Amendment.
(1) The agency or any affected person may commence an adjudicative proceeding to consider the need for cooperative or unit operation of a geothermal area.
(2) The division shall order the cooperative or unit operation of part or all of a geothermal area if the division finds that:
(a) a developable resource exists; and
(b) that this operation is reasonably necessary to prevent waste, to protect correlative rights, or to prevent the drilling of unnecessary wells and will not reduce the ultimate economic recovery of geothermal resources.
(3) The division's order for cooperative or unit operations shall be upon terms and conditions that are just and reasonable and satisfy the requirements of Subsection (2).
(4) An order by the division for unit operations shall prescribe a plan, including:
(a) a description of the geothermal area to be unit operated, termed the unit area;
(b) a statement of the nature of the operations contemplated, the time they will commence, and the manner and circumstances under which unit operations shall terminate;
(c) an allocation to the separately-owned tracts in the unit area of the geothermal resources produced and of the costs incurred in unit operations. The allocations shall be in accord with the agreement, if any, of the affected parties. If there is no agreement, the division shall determine the allocations from evidence introduced at a hearing before the division. Production shall be allocated in proportion to the relative value that each tract bears to the value of all tracts in the unit area. The acreage of each tract in proportion to the total unit acreage shall be the measure of relative value, unless the division finds after public hearing that another method is likely to result in a more equitable allocation and protection of correlative rights. Resource temperature, pressure, fluid quality, geological conditions, distance to place of use, and productivity are among the factors that may be considered in evaluating other methods. The method for allocating production in unit operations shall be revised, if, after a hearing, the division finds that the revised method is likely to result in a more equitable allocation and protection of correlative rights. Any affected person may file a request for agency action to consider adoption of a revised allocation method, but the request may not be made until three years after the initial order by the division or at less than two-year intervals after that. Upon receipt of a request for consideration of a revised allocation method, the division shall hold a hearing;
(d) a provision for adjustment among the owners of the unit area (not including royalty owners) of their respective investment in wells, tanks, pumps, machinery, materials, equipment, and other things and services of value attributable to the unit operations. The amount to be charged unit operations for each item shall be determined by the owners of the unit area (not including royalty owners). If the owners of the unit area are unable to agree upon the amount of the charges or to agree upon the correctness of the charges, any affected party may file a request for agency action. Upon receipt of the request, the division shall hold a hearing to determine them. The net amount charged against the owner of a separately-owned tract shall be considered an expense of unit operation chargeable against that tract. The adjustments provided for in this subsection may be treated separately and handled by agreements separate from the unitization agreement;
(e) a provision providing how the costs of unit operations, including capital investments, shall be determined and charged to the separately-owned tracts and how these costs shall be paid, including a provision providing when, how, and by whom the unit production allocated to an owner who does not pay the share of the cost of unit operation charged to that owner, or the interest of that owner, may be sold and the proceeds applied to the payment of the costs. The operator of the unit shall have a first and prior lien for costs incurred pursuant to the plan of unitization upon each owner's geothermal rights and his share of unitized production to secure the payment of the owner's proportionate part of the cost of developing and operating the unit area. This lien may be enforced in the same manner as provided by Title 38, Chapter 1a, Part 7, Enforcement of Preconstruction and Construction Liens. For these purposes any nonconsenting owner is considered to have contracted with the unit operator for his proportionate part of the cost of developing and operating the unit area. A transfer or conversion of any owner's interest or any portion of it, however accomplished, after the effective date of the order creating the unit, does not relieve the transferred interest of the operator's lien on the interest for the cost and expense of unit operations;
(f) a provision, if necessary, for carrying or otherwise financing any person who elects to be carried or otherwise financed, allowing a reasonable interest charge for this service payable out of that person's share of the production;
(g) a provision for the supervision and conduct of the unit operations, in respect to which each person shall have a vote with a value corresponding to the percentage of the costs of unit operations chargeable against the interest of that person;
(h) any additional provisions that are necessary to carry on the unit operations.
(5)
(a) No order of the division providing for unit operations is effective unless and until the division finds that the plan for unit operations prescribed by the division has been approved in writing by:
(i) those persons, who under the division's order, will be required to pay 66% of the costs of the unit operation; and
(ii) the owners of 66% of the production or proceeds of the unit operation that are free of costs, such as royalties, overriding royalties, and production payments.
(b) If the persons owning the required percentage of interest in the unit area do not approve the plan within six months from the date on which the order is made, the order is ineffective and shall be revoked by the division unless for good cause shown the division extends this time.
(6)
(a) An order providing for unit operations may be amended by an order of the division in the same manner and subject to the same conditions as an original order for unit operations.
(b) If this amendment affects only the rights and interests of the owners, the approval of the amendment by the owners of royalty, overriding royalty, production payments, and other interests that are free of costs is required.
(c) Production allocation may be amended only by following the procedures of Subsection (4)(c).
(7)
(a) All operations, including the commencement, drilling, or operation of a well upon any portion of the unit area are considered for all purposes to be the conduct of those operations upon each separately-owned tract in the unit by the several owners of tracts in the unit.
(b) The portions of the unit production allocated to a separately-owned tract in a unit area are, when produced, considered for all purposes to have been actually produced from that tract by a well drilled on it. Good faith operations conducted pursuant to an order of the division providing for unit operations constitutes a complete defense to any suit alleging breach of lease or of contractual obligations covering lands in the unit area to the extent that compliance with these obligations cannot be had because of the order of the division.
(8) The portion of the unit production allocated to any tract, and the proceeds from the sale of this production, are the property and income of the several persons to whom, or to whose credit, they are allocated or payable under the order providing for unit operations.
(9)
(a) Except to the extent that the parties affected so agree, and as provided in Subsection (4)(e), no order providing for unit operations may be construed to result in a transfer of all or any part of the title of any person to the geothermal resource rights in any tract in the unit area.
(b) All property, whether real or personal, that is acquired in the conduct of unit operations, is acquired for the account of the owners within the unit area and is the property of those owners in the proportion that the expenses of unit operations are charged.
Amended by Chapter 278, 2012 General Session
Utah Code § 73-22-8 Geothermal fluids as water resource -- Application for appropriation required -- Priorities.
73-22-8. Geothermal fluids as water resource -- Application for appropriation required -- Priorities.
(1) Geothermal fluids are deemed to be a special kind of underground water resource, related to and potentially affecting other water resources of the state. The utilization or distribution for their thermal content and subsurface injection or disposal of same shall constitute a beneficial use of the water resources of the state.
(2)
(a) Geothermal owners shall, prior to the commencement of, or increase in, production from a well or group of wells to be operated in concert, file an application with the division to appropriate such geothermal fluids as will be extracted from the well or group of wells. Publication of applications shall be made as provided in Section 73-3-6, and protests may be filed as provided in Section 73-3-7. The division shall approve an application if it finds that the applicant is a geothermal owner and that the proposed extraction of geothermal fluids will not impair existing rights to the waters of the state.
(b) The division may grant the quantity of an application on a provisional basis, to be finalized upon stabilization of well production. Flow testing of a discovery well shall not require an application to appropriate geothermal fluids.
(3) The date of an application to appropriate geothermal fluids, when approved by the division, shall be the priority date as between the geothermal owner and the owners of rights to water other than geothermal fluids. No priorities shall be created among geothermal owners by the approval of an application to appropriate geothermal fluids.
Enacted by Chapter 188, 1981 General Session
Utah Code § 73-22-9 Rights to geothermal resources.
73-22-9. Rights to geothermal resources.
Rights to geothermal resources and to geothermal fluids to be extracted in the course of production of geothermal resources acquired under Section 73-22-8 shall be based on the principle of correlative rights.
Enacted by Chapter 188, 1981 General Session
Utah Code § 73-22-10 Judicial review of division actions -- Falsification or omission of filings as misdemeanor -- Limitation of actions.
73-22-10. Judicial review of division actions -- Falsification or omission of filings as misdemeanor -- Limitation of actions.
(1)
(a) Any person aggrieved by any order issued under this chapter may obtain judicial review.
(b) Venue for judicial review of informal adjudicative proceedings is in the district court of Salt Lake County, or in the district court of the county in which the complaining person resides.
(2) An action or appeal involving any provision of this chapter, or a rule or order issued under it shall be determined as expeditiously as possible.
(3) Any person who, for the purpose of evading this chapter or any order of the division issued under it, makes or causes to be made any false entry in any report, record, account, or memorandum required by this chapter, or by any order issued under it, or omits or causes to be omitted from the report, record, account, or memorandum, full, true, and correct entries as required by this chapter, or by an order, or removes from this state or destroys, mutilates, alters, or falsifies the record, account, or memorandum, is guilty of a class A misdemeanor.
(4) No suit, action, or other proceeding based upon a violation of this chapter or any order of the division issued under it may be begun or maintained unless the action is begun within two years from the date of the alleged violation.
Amended by Chapter 161, 1987 General Session
Source: Utah Office of Legislative Research and General Counsel (le.utah.gov)URL: https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title73/Chapter22/73-22.html?v=C73-22_1800010118000101Fetched: 10/26/2026