The board may exempt an aquifer or a portion of an aquifer and designate it as an exempted aquifer if it meets the following criteria:

1. (1) It does not currently serve as a source of drinking water; and

2. (2) It cannot now and will not in the future serve as an underground source of drinking water for any of the following reasons:

   1. (a) It produces minerals, hydrocarbons, or geothermal energy, or can be demonstrated by a permit applicant as part of a permit application for an in situ leach mine to contain minerals or hydrocarbons that considering their quantity and location are expected to be commercially producible;
   2. (b) It is situated at a depth or location that makes recovery of water for drinking water purposes economically or technologically impractical;
   3. (c) It is so contaminated that it would be economically or technologically impractical to render the water fit for human consumption; or
   4. (d) It is located over an injection well mining area subject to subsidence or catastrophic collapse; or
3. (3) The total dissolved solids content of the ground water is more than 3,000 and less than 10,000 milligrams per liter and it is not reasonably expected to supply a public water system.

Source: 33 SDR 160, effective April 17, 2007.

General Authority: SDCL 45-6B-81.

Law Implemented: SDCL 45-6B-41.