The Department of Public Health shall adopt, in accordance with chapter 54, regulations establishing criteria and performance standards for three classes of water-company-owned land.

(a) Class I land includes all land owned by a water company or acquired from a water company through foreclosure or other involuntary transfer of ownership or control which is either: (1) Within two hundred and fifty feet of high water of a reservoir or one hundred feet of all watercourses as defined in agency regulations adopted pursuant to this section; (2) within the areas along watercourses which are covered by any of the critical components of a stream belt; (3) land with slopes fifteen per cent or greater without significant interception by wetlands, swales and natural depressions between the slopes and the watercourses; (4) within two hundred feet of groundwater wells; (5) an identified direct recharge area or outcrop of aquifer now in use or available for future use, or (6) an area with shallow depth to bedrock, twenty inches or less, or poorly drained or very poorly drained soils as defined by the United States Soil Conservation Service that are contiguous to land described in subdivision (3) or (4) of this subsection and that extend to the top of the slope above the receiving watercourse.

(b) Class II land includes all land owned by a water company or acquired from a water company through foreclosure or other involuntary transfer of ownership or control which is either (1) on a public drinking supply watershed which is not included in class I or (2) completely off a public drinking supply watershed and which is within one hundred and fifty feet of a distribution reservoir or a first-order stream tributary to a distribution reservoir.

(c) Class III land includes all land owned by a water company or acquired from a water company through foreclosure or other involuntary transfer of ownership or control which is unimproved land off public drinking supply watersheds and beyond one hundred and fifty feet from a distribution reservoir or first-order stream tributary to a distribution reservoir.