Drinking Water Safeguard Zones (Groundwater)

Drinking Water Groundwater Safeguard Zones (SgZs) are established around public water supplies where additional pollution control measures are needed. The Water Framework Directive requires that Drinking Water Protected Areas are identified (WFD Article 7.1) and that they are given the necessary protection (WFD Article 7.3) with the aim of avoiding deterioration in their quality in order to reduce the level of purification treatment required in the production of drinking water.

The geometry of Groundwater Safeguard Zones are based on Groundwater Source Protection Zones (SPZs)*, usually the SPZ 2, and use additional assessment to identify areas, which may or may not coincide with the SPZ, where additional measures are required to ensure that abstraction waters meet Article 7.3 of the WFD. SgZs can be large or small depending on the pollution problem and may not cover the whole of a catchment or sub-catchment.

*AfA029 Source Protection Zones [Merged] is available. Attribution statement: Contains Environment Agency information © Environment Agency and/or database rights. Derived from BGS digital data under licence from British Geological Survey copyright NERC.

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Last Updated September 12, 2025, 13:29 (UTC)
Created July 25, 2017, 15:32 (UTC)