---
kind: "section"
citation: "40 C.F.R. § 149.3"
title: "40"
number: "149.3"
heading: "Critical Aquifer Protection Areas."
url: "https://uscodex.org/cfr/40/149.3"
---

# §149.3. Critical Aquifer Protection Areas.


A Critical Aquifer Protection Area is either:

- (a) All or part of an area which was designated as a sole or principal source aquifer prior to June 19, 1986, and for which an areawide ground-water quality protection plan was approved, under section 208 of the Clean Water Act, prior to that date; or
- (b) All or part of a major recharge area of a sole or principal source aquifer, designated before June 19, 1988, for which:
  - (1) The sole or principal source aquifer is particularly vulnerable to contamination due to the hydrogeologic characteristics of the unsaturated or saturated zone within the suggested critical aquifer protection area; and
  - (2) Contamination of the sole or principal source aquifer is reasonably likely to occur, unless a program to reduce or prevent such contamination is implemented; and
  - (3) In the absence of any program to reduce or prevent contamination, reasonably foreseeable contamination would result in significant cost, taking into account:
    - (i) The cost of replacing the drinking water supply from the sole or principal source aquifer, and
    - (ii) **Other economic costs and environmental and social costs resulting from such contamination.**

## Notes

### Amendments

[54 FR 6843, Feb. 14, 1989]

### Source

Source: 52 FR 23986, June 26, 1987, unless otherwise noted.

### Authority

Authority: Sec. 1424(e), Safe Drinking Water Act (42 U.S.C. 300h-3(e); sec. 1427 of the Safe Drinking Water Act, (42 U.S.C. 300h-6).

### Amendments

[54 FR 6843, Feb. 14, 1989]