Locations of approved underground source of drinking water (USDW) aquifer exemptions in the U.S..  These areas allow of wastewater to be injected directly into aquifers.
In 1974, the U.S. Congress passed the Safe Water Drinking Act (SWDA).  In it, language was included to prioritize domestic oil and gas interests.  The U.S. SWDA exempts certain areas of groundwater from protection.
As USEPA was developing the SDWA Underground Injectoin Control (UIC) program, it became clear that certain oil and gas activities would conflict with the prohibition of injection into drinking water sources (Tiemann & Vann 2013). The regulatory solution
was to exempt certain aquifers from the definition of “underground sources of drinking water” in order to allow certain activities, including some enhanced recovery practices and wastewater disposal directly into aquifers.
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