Brandywine Christina Watershed

8 Digit Hydrologic Unit Code - 02040205

Delaware

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Surf Your Watershed is a service to help you locate, use, and share environmental information about your state and watershed.

Introduction The Brandywine-Christina 8-digit Hydrologic Unit Code (HUC) subbasin covers 231,734 acres. The entire Delaware portion of the watershed is located in New Castle County. There are 283 farms located in the subbasin. The average farm size is 200 acres, but about 5 percent of the farms are between 500 and 1,000 acres and another 6 percent exceed 1,000 acres in size. There are 29,503 acres in farms in the watershed with 92 acres enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program. Approximately 84 percent of the farmland or 24,780 acres is cropland. Corn, soybeans and wheat are the primary crops grown on about 94 percent of the acreage. Vegetables are grown on 2 percent of the acreage and hay and pasture account for the remaining one percent. Horse farms are the primary type of livestock operation in the watershed.

Physical Description

Landuse Urban Agriculture Confined Feeding Forest Wetland Water Other Total

Source: Delaware Non-Point Source Pollution Assessment Report, based on 1984 land use.

Soils

Digitized soils map information suitable for use in Toolkit is available for the entire watershed.

Primary soils in the watershed include:

• Glenelg-Manor-Chester
• Sassafras-Fallsington-Matapeake
• Matapeake-Sassafras

The Glenelg-Manor-Chester association is one large area located in the northern and northwestern parts of New Castle County. It consists mainly of gently sloping to moderately sloping soils. However, on the bottom lands and crests they are nearly level, and in some areas above streams they are steep. This association occupies about 15 percent of the county. The major soils in this association are deep, well drained and micaceous. Farming is intensive in many places. Much of the farming is on the contour, and row crops are alternated with strips of hay or other close-growing crops. Large areas are in hay and pasture. The soils have few limitations as building sites, although slope is a limitation in places.

The Sassafras-Fallsington-Matapeake association occupies a broad area that extends from the Maryland state line almost to the city of Wilmington. Slopes range from 0 to 15 percent and makes up about 12 percent of the county. The Sassafras and Matapeake soils are well drained and the Fallsington soils are poorly drained. Farming is still important on these soils but community development is considerable, especially near Wilmington and Newark. Sassafras and Matapeake soils have few to moderate limitations for farming and nonfarm uses. Fallsington soils are generally wet and have severe limitations for most uses. If drained Fallsington soils are more suitable for farming than for community development.

The Matapeake-Sassafras association occupies a large area that extends from New Castle southwest through the central part of the county to the Maryland state line. The soils are mainly nearly level, but they range from nearly level to steep. This association makes up about 27 percent of the county. The Matapeake and Sassafras soils are deep and well drained and are extensively used for farming. Except for the slope and the hazard of erosion in some areas, the major soils have few limitations for farming and for most nonfarm uses.

Resource Concerns

The primary resource concerns in the watershed are erosion and nutrient loading to ground and surface waters. In order to meet the basic Tier I requirement for inclusion in the CSP program farm operators must be addressing nutrient and erosion issues in their conservation plans. To qualify for Tier II farm operators must be focused on addressing wildlife habitat issues in their farm plans. Of the 13 stream systems in the watershed the state has designated five of the systems to be of high concern and six to be of medium concern and two to be of low concern for surface water quality. The majority of Northern New Castle County residents rely on surface water from these streams for their municipal and industrial water supply. In terms of ground water quality five were of high concern, six medium concern and two were of low concern. Ground water provided through private and municipal wells is the major source of water for agriculture, industry and residential drinking water in the areas below the C & D Canal. Base flow provided by ground water is also considered the primary supplier of fresh water to streams and is a very direct source of nutrients and other pollutants to surface waters.

Common Resource Areas The Common Resource Areas for the watershed have been designated as 148 and 149A

Studies and Assessments

The state of Delaware’s Division of Natural Resources has completed Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) Assessments of the major stream systems and water bodies in the watershed. Non point sources of pollution from nutrients and bacteria have been identified as the primary stressors to water quality in all major streams in this watershed. In addition portions of the Christina and Appoquinimink Rivers, and Red Clay, Brandywine, and Red Lion Creeks are impacted by PCB’s or Dioxin. Fish consumption advisories have been posted for these water bodies and the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal which traverses the watershed.

Census and Social Data

The total population of the watershed based on the 2000 census is 394,300 people. The annual median household income in the area is $52,420. Approximately 8.4 percent of the people have living standards below the national poverty level. The estimated number and percentage of people by race in the watershed is as follows:

Farm Community

The information in the following table was compiled based on data from the 2002 Census of Agriculture. It can be used to estimate the potential number of limited resource, and beginning or new farmers in the watershed.

Based on median size of farm, and sales less than $40,000, 60 to 74 percent of the Farms would qualify as limited resource. Vegetable operations and intensive broiler production can be profitable on less than median size acreage which makes size a poor indicator of limited resource farmers. For farmers whose main source of income is farming, sales less than $40,000 would be a good indicator. Farm operators who generate the majority of their income off farm would probably not qualify as limited resource. Based on race and gender about 6 to 16 percent of the farms would qualify as limited resource. The high cost of farm land and equipment in an urbanizing area make it difficult to enter farming. This would account for new or beginning farmers only representing about one percent of the farm operators in the watershed. Focusing on farms with farming as their principal occupation with sales less than $40,000, minority and female operators, and beginning farmers, would be the best strategy for identifying farmers with limited resources in the watershed.

Technical Information Maps of the Watershed

The Following Documents Require Adobe Acrobat

NOTE: The MB Files are Very Large and will require time to Download
 

File Description	Map Thumbnail
brandywinechrishydro.pdf (2 MB) – This map portrays the network of streams that run through the Brandywine-Christina Watershed. The base layer is comprised of the new 2006 orthoimagery. Some, not all, of the major creeks and runs found throughout this watershed are labeled.
brandywinechrislulc.pdf (277 KB) – This map portrays the different uses of land in the Brandywine-Christina Watershed. Farming and urban are the two biggest land uses. The legend file shows what the colors stand for and can be looked at in PDF format. lulclegend.pdf (15 KB) – Note:  Legend document for the BrandywineChrislulc.pdf file.
brandywinechrisroads.pdf (2 MB) – This map portrays the network of roads that run through the Brandywine-Christina Watershed. The base layer is comprised of the new 2006 orthoimagery. The roads layer was created by DELDOT last year and the centerlines match up perfectly with each road. Some, not all, of the major roads found throughout this watershed are labeled.
brandywinechrissid.pdf (2 MB) – This map portrays USDA’s 2006 NAIP Ortho product for the Brandywine-Christina Watershed. The imagery is true-color, which means it lacks the reddish tint of the 2002 ortho. The map scale is 1:12,000 and has a 1-meter resolution.
brandywinechristopo.pdf (2 MB) – This map portrays the elevation and contour lines that makes up the Brandywine-Christina Watershed. Some, but all, roads, various landmarks, and water bodies labeled.
brandywinechriswaterbody.pdf (2 MB) – There is one significant body of water found throughout the Brandywine-Christina Watershed. The canal sits right in the middle of the watershed and goes from the Delaware Bay to the Chesapeake Bay.

Watershed Contact - Delaware

Art Walker, GIS Specialist
(302) 678-4183
(302) 678-0843 (Fax)
(302) 233-2555 (Work Cell)
 

Last Modified:  09/25/2007 07:47:22 AM

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