EPA Class VI injection wells are the regulatory category for CO2 sequestration. What permitting, monitoring, and project siting mean for surface and mineral owners.
Quick answer
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Underground Injection Control (UIC) program regulates the underground injection of fluids. The program defines six categories of injection wells; Class VI is the category specifically created for the geologic sequestration of carbon dioxide.
Class VI wells inject CO2 into deep, isolated rock formations — typically saline aquifers thousands of feet below drinking water sources. The program imposes substantial permitting, monitoring, and post-injection care requirements designed to ensure the CO2 stays sequestered and does not migrate into drinking water or producing oil and gas zones.
Obtaining a Class VI permit is a multi-year process with several major components:
Site characterization — geologic studies, modeling of the storage formation and confining layers
Area of Review (AoR) modeling — defining the surface footprint where injected CO2 may travel
Public notice — to landowners, mineral owners, and surrounding communities within the AoR
Construction and well integrity testing
Operational monitoring — pressure monitoring, plume tracking, post-injection care
Post-Injection Site Care (PISC) — typically 50 years of post-closure monitoring
You may receive notice. Class VI permits require notification to surface and mineral owners within the Area of Review. Read any notice carefully and consider consulting an oil and gas attorney.
Existing oil and gas operations are typically protected. Class VI permits cannot interfere with existing producing wells; AoR modeling specifically addresses interaction with active oil and gas zones.
Future drilling may be affected. A permitted Class VI well creates a long-term subsurface obligation that can complicate future deeper drilling or refrac activity.
Pore space owners may benefit. CCS lease payments to pore-space owners can be substantial, particularly with 45Q tax credit upside.
As of 2026, the most active Class VI permitting jurisdictions include:
Illinois Basin — Wabash Valley Resources hub (Indiana), multiple Illinois projects
Louisiana — multiple permitted projects across the Gulf Coast
North Dakota — primacy state with multiple in-state Class VI permits
Wyoming — primacy state; multiple permitted projects
Texas — multiple projects in development
States that have obtained primacy from EPA can issue their own Class VI permits; in non-primacy states, EPA Region offices issue the permits directly.
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