40 CFR § 149.3 - Critical Aquifer Protection Areas.

---
identifier: "/us/cfr/t40/s149.3"
source: "ecfr"
legal_status: "authoritative_unofficial"
title: "40 CFR § 149.3 - Critical Aquifer Protection Areas."
title_number: 40
title_name: "Protection of Environment"
section_number: "149.3"
section_name: "Critical Aquifer Protection Areas."
chapter_name: "ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY"
subchapter_number: "D"
subchapter_name: "WATER PROGRAMS"
part_number: "149"
part_name: "SOLE SOURCE AQUIFERS"
positive_law: false
currency: "2026-04-05"
last_updated: "2026-04-05"
format_version: "1.1.0"
generator: "[email protected]"
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)."
cfr_part: "149"
---


# 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.

[54 FR 6843, Feb. 14, 1989]