---
kind: "range"
citation: "50 C.F.R. §§ 29.111–29.119"
title: "50"
from: "29.111"
to: "29.119"
count: 9
url: "https://uscodex.org/cfr/50/29.111..29.119"
---

# §29.111. What general facility design and management standards must I meet?


As a permittee, you must:

- (a) Design, construct, operate, and maintain access to your operational site to cause the minimum amount of surface disturbance needed to safely conduct operations and to avoid areas we have identified as containing sensitive resources.
- (b) Install and maintain secondary containment materials and structures for all equipment and facilities using or storing contaminating substances. The containment system must be sufficiently impervious to prevent discharge and must have sufficient storage capacity to contain, at a minimum, the largest potential spill incident.
- (c) Keep temporarily stored waste in the smallest area feasible, and confine the waste to prevent escape as a result of percolation, rain, high water, or other causes. You must regularly remove waste from the refuge and lawfully dispose of the waste in a direct and workable timeframe. You may not establish a solid waste disposal site on a refuge.
- (d) **Use engines that adhere to applicable Federal and State emission standards.**
- (e) **Construct, maintain, and use roads in a manner to minimize fugitive dust emissions.**
- (f) Design, operate, and maintain your operations and equipment in a manner consistent with good air pollution control practices so as to minimize emissions and leaks of air pollutants and hydrocarbons, including intentional releases or flaring of gases.
- (g) Control the invasion of noxious and invasive plant and animal species in your area of operations from the beginning through final reclamation.
- (h) Avoid conducting ground-disturbing operations within 500 feet of any surface water, including an intermittent or ephemeral watercourse, or wetland, or any refuge structure or facility used by refuges for interpretation, public recreation, or administration. We may increase or decrease this distance consistent with the need to protect Service-administered structures or facilities, visitor uses or experiences, or visitor or employee health and safety; or to ensure that you have reasonable access to your non-Federal oil and gas. Measurements for purposes of this paragraph are by map distance.

# §29.112. What fish and wildlife protection standards must I meet?


To protect fish and wildlife resources on the refuge, you must:

- (a) Along with your employees and contractors, adhere to all refuge regulations for the protection of fish, wildlife, and plants;
- (b) Ensure that you, your employees, and contractors have been informed and educated by the refuge staff on the appropriate protection practices for wildlife conservation;
- (c) Conduct operations in a manner that does not create an unsafe environment for fish and wildlife by avoiding or minimizing exposure to physical and chemical hazards; and
- (d) Conduct operations in a manner that avoids or minimizes impacts to sensitive wildlife, including timing and location of operations.

# §29.113. What hydrologic standards must I meet?


You must:

- (a) **Construct facilities in a manner that maintains hydrologic movement and function.**
- (b) **Not cause measurable degradation of surface water or groundwater beyond that of existing conditions.**
- (c) **Conduct operations in a manner that maintains natural processes of erosion and sedimentation.**

# §29.114. What safety standards must I meet?


To ensure the safety of your operations, you must:

- (a) Maintain your area of operations in a manner that avoids or minimizes the cause or spread of fire and does not intensify fire originating outside your operations area;
- (b) Maintain structures, facilities, improvements, and equipment in a safe and professional manner in order not to create an unsafe environment for refuge resources, visitors, and employees, by avoiding or minimizing exposure to physical and chemical hazards; and
- (c) Provide site-security measures to protect visitors from hazardous conditions resulting from your operations.

# §29.115. What lighting and visual standards must I meet?

- (a) You must design, shield, and focus lighting to minimize the effects of spill light on the night sky or adjacent areas; and
- (b) You must reduce visual contrast in the landscape in selecting the area of operations, avoiding unnecessary disturbance, choosing appropriate colors and materials for roads and permanent structures, and other means.

# §29.116. What noise reduction standards must I meet?


You must prevent or minimize all noise that:

- (a) Adversely affects refuge resources or uses, taking into account frequency, magnitude, or duration; or
- (b) Exceeds levels that have been identified through monitoring as being acceptable to or appropriate for uses at the sites being monitored.

# §29.117. What reclamation and protection standards must I meet?

- (a) You must promptly clean up and remove from the refuge any released contaminating substances in accordance with all applicable Federal, State, and local laws.
- (b) You must perform partial reclamation of areas that are no longer necessary to conduct operations. You must begin final reclamation within 6 months after you complete your authorized operations unless we authorize a different reclamation period in writing.
- (c) You must protect all survey markers (e.g., monuments, witness corners, reference monuments, and bearing trees) against destruction, obliteration, or damage from operations. You are responsible for reestablishment, restoration, and referencing of any monuments, corners, and bearing trees that are destroyed, obliterated, or damaged by your operations.
- (d) You must complete reclamation by:
  - (1) Plugging all wells;
  - (2) Removing all above-ground structures, equipment, roads, and all other manmade material and debris resulting from operations;
  - (3) Removing or neutralizing any contaminating substances;
  - (4) Reestablishing native vegetative communities, or providing for conditions where ecological processes typical of the ecological zone (e.g., plant or wildlife succession) will reestablish themselves;
  - (5) Grading to conform the contours to pre-existing elevations as necessary to maximize ecological function;
  - (6) Restoring conditions to pre-disturbance hydrologic movement and functionality;
  - (7) Restoring natural systems using native soil material that is similar in character to the adjacent undisturbed soil profiles;
  - (8) Ensuring that reclamation does not interfere with visitor use or with administration of the refuge;
  - (9) Attaining conditions that are consistent with the management objectives of the refuge, designed to meet the purposes for which the refuge was established; and
  - (10) Coordinating with us or with other operators who may be using a portion of your area of operations to ensure proper and equitable apportionment of reclamation responsibilities.

# §29.118. What additional operating standards apply to geophysical operations?


If you conduct geophysical operations, you must do all of the following:

- (a) **Use surveying methods that minimize the need for vegetative trimming and removal.**
- (b) Locate source points using industry-accepted minimum safe-offset distances from pipelines, telephone lines, railroad tracks, roads, power lines, water wells, oil and gas wells, oil- and gas-production facilities, and buildings.
- (c) Use equipment and methods that, based upon the specific environment, will minimize impacts to Service-administered lands and waters, and resources of refuges; visitor uses and experiences; and visitor and employee health and safety.
- (d) If you use shot holes, you must:
  - (1) Use biodegradable charges;
  - (2) Plug all shot holes to prevent a pathway for migration for fluids along any portion of the bore; and
  - (3) Leave the site in a clean and safe condition that will not impede surface reclamation or pose a hazard to wildlife or human health and safety.

# §29.119. What additional operating standards apply to drilling and production operations?


If you conduct drilling and production operations, you must meet all of the following standards:

- (a) **To conduct drilling operations, you must—**
  - (1) Use containerized mud circulation systems for operations;
  - (2) Not create or use earthen pits;
  - (3) Take all necessary precautions to keep your wells under control at all times, using only employees, contractors, or subcontractors trained and competent in well control procedures and equipment operation, and using industry-accepted well control equipment and practices; and
  - (4) Design, implement, and maintain integrated casing, cementing, drilling fluid, completion, stimulation, and blowout prevention programs to prevent escape of fluids to the surface and to isolate and protect usable water zones throughout the life of the well, taking into account all relevant geologic and engineering factors.
- (b) To conduct production operations, in addition to meeting the standards of [paragraphs (a)(1) through (a)(4)](#a-1..a-4) of this section, you must do all of the following:
  - (1) Monitor producing conditions for early indications that could lead to loss of mechanical integrity of producing equipment.
  - (2) Maintain all surface equipment and the wellhead to prevent leaks or releases of any fluids or air pollutants.
  - (3) **Identify wells and related facilities with appropriate signage.** Signs must remain in place until the well is plugged and abandoned and the related facilities are removed. Signs must be of durable construction, and the lettering must be legible and large enough to be read under normal conditions at a distance of at least 50 feet. Each sign must show the name of the well, name of the operator, and the emergency contact phone number.
  - (4) **Remove all equipment and materials when not needed for the current phase of your operation.**
  - (5) Plug all wells, leaving the surface in a clean and safe condition that will not impede surface reclamation or pose a hazard to wildlife or human health and safety, in accordance with [§ 29.117](/cfr/50/29.117.md).