San­i­tary pro­tec­tion zone of a water intake is a des­ig­nat­ed area where a spe­cial san­i­tary and epi­demi­o­log­i­cal regime is estab­lished in order to pre­serve the qual­i­ty of the water source and ensure pro­tec­tion of water sup­ply sys­tems, in accor­dance with the Water Code of Ukraine. The bound­aries of san­i­tary pro­tec­tion zones for under­ground water sources are deter­mined by a san­i­tary pro­tec­tion zone project. Such a project is devel­oped for all water intakes that use ground­wa­ter from aquifers locat­ed below the aer­a­tion zone.

A san­i­tary pro­tec­tion zone project for a well must be devel­oped imme­di­ate­ly after drilling and equip­ping the well or after com­ple­tion of geo­log­i­cal and eco­nom­ic eval­u­a­tion of ground­wa­ter reserves of the water intake.

In accor­dance with Arti­cles 35 and 36 of the Law of Ukraine “On Drink­ing Water and Drink­ing Water Sup­ply” , san­i­tary pro­tec­tion zones of water intakes con­sist of three belts, with­in which spe­cial land-use con­di­tions are estab­lished:

• first belt – strict regime zone;
• sec­ond belt – restric­tion zone;
• third belt – obser­va­tion zone.

The strict regime zone (first belt) is intend­ed to pro­tect the loca­tion of wells and relat­ed facil­i­ties from acci­den­tal or inten­tion­al con­t­a­m­i­na­tion and dam­age. This zone includes the water intake area and build­ings and equip­ment nec­es­sary for its oper­a­tion. The size of the strict regime san­i­tary pro­tec­tion zone is deter­mined sole­ly by the nat­ur­al pro­tec­tion of the exploit­ed aquifer or aquifer sys­tem. Nat­ur­al pro­tec­tion of ground­wa­ter refers to the risk of con­t­a­m­i­na­tion (expressed by migra­tion time, score, or index) when pol­lu­tants reach the ground sur­face under nat­ur­al con­di­tions.

Pro­tec­tion of the aquifer (or aquifer sys­tem) depends on hydro­ge­o­log­i­cal con­di­tions and physic­o­chem­i­cal prop­er­ties of the geo­log­i­cal envi­ron­ment. Pro­tect­ed ground­wa­ter includes water from aquifers that are over­lain by a con­tin­u­ous imper­me­able lay­er through­out all belts of the san­i­tary pro­tec­tion zone, pre­vent­ing ver­ti­cal flow from less pro­tect­ed over­ly­ing aquifers. In Ukraine, dur­ing the 1980s–1990s, region­al maps of nat­ur­al ground­wa­ter pro­tec­tion at a scale of 1:200,000 were pre­pared, allow­ing assess­ment of ground­wa­ter pro­tec­tion con­di­tions at spe­cif­ic sites.

The size of the strict regime zone is estab­lished by DBN V.2.5–74:2013 . The bound­aries of the first belt of the san­i­tary pro­tec­tion zone are defined from a sin­gle well (or shaft well, spring cap­ture, etc.) or from the out­er­most intake struc­ture in the case of a group intake, at the fol­low­ing dis­tances:

• for pro­tect­ed aquifers – a radius of 30 m;
• for insuf­fi­cient­ly pro­tect­ed aquifers – a radius of 50 m.

For water intakes locat­ed in areas where ground­wa­ter or soil con­t­a­m­i­na­tion is impos­si­ble, as well as where hydro­ge­o­log­i­cal, topo­graph­ic, and san­i­tary con­di­tions are favor­able, the strict regime zone radius may be reduced to not less than 15 m or 25 m respec­tive­ly. With­in the first belt, the area must be lev­eled, fenced, land­scaped, and equipped with secu­ri­ty sys­tems. Waste­water must be divert­ed out­side the zone to the near­est sew­er sys­tem, and build­ings must be sew­er-con­nect­ed.

Accord­ing to Res­o­lu­tion of the Cab­i­net of Min­is­ters of Ukraine dat­ed Decem­ber 18, 1998 No. 2024 , the fol­low­ing activ­i­ties are pro­hib­it­ed with­in the strict regime zone:

• pres­ence of unau­tho­rized per­sons;
• place­ment of facil­i­ties unre­lat­ed to ground­wa­ter abstrac­tion;
• con­struc­tion or instal­la­tion works not direct­ly relat­ed to water intake facil­i­ties;
• use of min­er­al or organ­ic fer­til­iz­ers and pes­ti­cides;
• con­struc­tion of pipelines;
• dis­charge of any waste­water;
• graz­ing of live­stock;
• log­ging.

Com­pli­ance with the regime of the first belt is ensured by the water intake own­er or the water sup­ply oper­a­tor. Areas intend­ed to pre­vent con­t­a­m­i­na­tion of water sources belong to the sec­ond and third belts (restric­tion and obser­va­tion zones).

The sec­ond belt of the san­i­tary pro­tec­tion zone is designed to pro­tect ground­wa­ter from micro­bi­o­log­i­cal con­t­a­m­i­na­tion. Its size is deter­mined by hydro­dy­nam­ic cal­cu­la­tions that con­sid­er ground­wa­ter flow and the sur­vival time of microor­gan­isms. The cal­cu­lat­ed peri­od (100, 200, or 400 days) depends on the inten­si­ty of bac­te­r­i­al con­t­a­m­i­na­tion and cli­mat­ic con­di­tions.

With­in the restric­tion belt, the fol­low­ing mea­sures must be imple­ment­ed:

• reg­u­la­tion of land allo­ca­tion for res­i­den­tial, med­ical, agri­cul­tur­al, and indus­tri­al facil­i­ties;
• improve­ment of indus­tri­al and agri­cul­tur­al areas and cen­tral­ized water sup­ply with prop­er sew­er­age;
• reg­u­la­tion of con­struc­tion of new wells.

Defec­tive or improp­er­ly used wells and shafts pos­ing con­t­a­m­i­na­tion risks must be sealed or reha­bil­i­tat­ed. Where indus­tri­al activ­i­ty pos­es a risk of ground­wa­ter con­t­a­m­i­na­tion, pro­duc­tion tech­nolo­gies should be mod­i­fied where fea­si­ble.

• pol­lute the area with waste or debris;
• locate facil­i­ties that may cause chem­i­cal con­t­a­m­i­na­tion of water sources;
• estab­lish facil­i­ties pos­ing micro­bi­o­log­i­cal con­t­a­m­i­na­tion risks (e.g., live­stock farms, manure stor­age, ceme­ter­ies);
• store or use min­er­al fer­til­iz­ers and pes­ti­cides;
• inject return waters into aquifers or store sol­id waste under­ground;
• con­duct clear-cut log­ging.

The third belt of the san­i­tary pro­tec­tion zone is intend­ed to pre­vent chem­i­cal con­t­a­m­i­na­tion of the aquifer. Its bound­ary is deter­mined by hydro­dy­nam­ic cal­cu­la­tions based on migra­tion rates of chem­i­cal pol­lu­tants. With­in this belt, aban­doned or improp­er­ly used wells must be sealed or reha­bil­i­tat­ed. Con­struc­tion of new wells or oth­er facil­i­ties requires manda­to­ry approval from san­i­tary and geo­log­i­cal author­i­ties.

• inject waste­water into aquifers or dis­pose of sol­id waste under­ground;
• locate stor­age facil­i­ties for sub­stances pos­ing chem­i­cal con­t­a­m­i­na­tion risks;
• place indus­tri­al waste­water reser­voirs, oil pipelines, or prod­uct pipelines.

Com­pli­ance with the regimes of the sec­ond and third belts is ensured by local exec­u­tive author­i­ties, local self-gov­ern­ment bod­ies, and landown­ers or land users with­in these zones. Results of san­i­tary pro­tec­tion zone cal­cu­la­tions are used in the devel­op­ment of Field devel­op­ment plan, Envi­ron­men­tal Impact Assess­ment, and in oth­er relat­ed works.