When used herein, unless the context requires otherwise:

(1) "Board" means the Board of Land Commissioners of the state of Montana;

(2) "Department" means the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation of the state of Montana;

(3) "Director" means director of Natural Resources and Conservation, chief administrative officer of the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation;

(4) "Geothermal Resources" means the natural heat energy of the earth, including the energy, in whatever form, which may be found in either position and at any depth below the surface of the earth, either present in, resulting from, created by, or which may be extracted from such natural heat and all minerals in solution or other products obtained from the medium of any geothermal resource;

(5) "Lessee" means the person in whose name the geothermal resources lease appears on record in the office of the director, whether such person be the original lessee or a subsequent assignee. The term "lessee" also includes, where the context of the rule may indicate, any person who is the apparent successful bidder for a geothermal resources lease but with whom a formal lease agreement has not been completed and finalized;

(6) "Material disturbance" means all disturbance by mechanical equipment including, but not limited to, bulldozers, graders, backhoes, trenching machines, drilling rigs, augers, and explosives;

(7) "Operator" means the person having control or management of geothermal resource operations on the leased lands

or a portion thereof;

(8) "Person" means any individual, person, firm, association, corporation or other legal entity;

(9) "Prospect well" means a geophysical test well, temperature gradient test well or any other test well drilled for informational purposes in the exploration of and search for geothermal resources;

(10) "State" means the state of Montana;

(11) "State lands" includes all lands and interests within the jurisdiction of the board;

(12) "Waste" means any physical waste, deleterious effects on surface and ground water, including but not limited to underground waste resulting from the inefficient, excessive or improper use or dissipation of reservoir energy or resulting from the location, spacing, drilling, equipment, operation or production of a geothermal resource well or prospect well in such manner that reduces or tends to reduce the ultimate economic recovery of the geothermal resources within a reservoir; and the surface waste resulting from the location, spacing, drilling, equipping, operation or production of a geothermal resource well or prospective well in such a manner that causes or tends to cause the unnecessary or excessive surface loss or destruction of geothermal resources released from the reservoir;

(13) "Well" means any excavation made for the discovery or production of geothermal resources, or any excavation or facility used for the reinjection of geothermal resources or the residue thereof underground.

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