New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, New Jersey Geological SurveyThere are seven sole-source aquifers (SSAs) in New Jersey. These are defined by the EPA as those aquifers that contribute more than 50 percent of the drinking water to a specific area and the water would be impossible to replace if the aquifer were contaminated. Sole-source aquifers are defined with guidelines set forth by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as authorized in section 1424(e) of the Safe Drinking Water act of 1974. Any federally-funded project in an area that could affect ground-water in a sole-source aquifer must be reviewed by the US EPA. This 'project review area' includes the aquifer's 'recharge zone' and it's 'stream-flow source zone'. The recharge zone is the area through which water recharges the aquifer. The source zone is the upstream area that contributes recharge water to the aquifer. The EPA sometimes modifies the project review areas as published in the Federal Register in order to better protect zone as originally published. Most of New Jersey is covered by the seven SSAs and their project review areas. Descriptions of the SSAs can be found in Entity and Attribute information. This is based on notifications published in the Federal Register. The order of chronological approval is as follows: 1.) Buried Valley SSA 2.) Ridgewood SSA 3.) Rockaway SSA 4.) Highlands SSA 5.) Northwest New Jersey SSA 6.) Coastal Plain SSA 7.) Ramapo SSA The sole source aquifer program is a federal program administered by the Environmental Protection Agency under the Safe Drinking Water Act. All questions about the program should be addressed to them. EPA's reference for the sole source aquifers in New Jersey is at: https://www.epa.gov/region2/water/aquifer/ This data contains polygons of the sole-source aquifers for New Jersey that are approved as of December 2008. The coverage was built by the N.J. Geological Survey from standard GIS files of U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) hydrologic units, New Jersey state and municipal boundaries, and aquifers. Please reference this coverage as follows: Hoffman, J.L, 1998, USEPA-designated sole-source-aquifers in New Jersey: N.J. Geological Survey Digital Geodata Series DGS 98-6, Trenton.ArcGIS DynamicMapLayerhttps://hub.arcgis.com/datasets/5ccff5b846ea4652a46b93e317930d2f_19engNew Jersey Department of Environmental Protection's (NJDEP) Bureau of GISPublicSole-Source Aquifers in New Jersey [New Jersey]Web servicesNew JerseyLast Modified: 2023-12-27