On June 8, 2024, the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) issued a draft Class VI injection well permit under the federal Underground Injection Control (UIC) program for the Juniper I-1 well application submitted by Tallgrass Energy. The permit now enters a 60-day public comment period. Following review of the public comments and any public hearings, the Director of the Wyoming DEQ will issue a final decision on the permit.
The Juniper I-1 well will be the first well in Tallgrass’s planned Eastern Wyoming Sequestration Hub (EWS Hub) in southeast Wyoming. The EWS Hub project plans transport more than 10 million tonnes of CO₂ per year captured from industrial facilities in multiple states surrounding Wyoming to EWS Hub storage sites. The project will use the roughly 400-mile Trailblazer pipeline, after it is converted from natural gas to CO₂ service.
The state of Wyoming was granted primary enforcement authority (“primacy”) for Class VI wells under the US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) UIC program on September 3, 2020. Wyoming, North Dakota, and Louisiana are the only US states with UIC Class VI primacy. Wyoming DEQ issued its first three Class VI injection permits in December 2023.
Currently, more than 200 Class VI well permit applications for more than 80 projects have been submitted in 18 states and one tribal nation under the US EPA UIC program.
More information about the draft Class VI injection permit can be found here.