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Broadkill-Smyrna Watershed

8 Digit Hydrologic Unit Code - 02040207

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 Broadkill-Smyrna 8-digit Hydrologic Unit Code (HUC) subbasin covers 406,029 acres. Approximately 60 percent of the subbasin is located in Kent County, 30 percent is in Sussex County and the remaining 10 percent is in New Castle County. There are 781 farms located in the subbasin . The average farm size is 257 acres, but about 5 percent of the farms are between 500 and 1,000 acres and another 5 percent exceed 1,000 acres in size.

There are 187,904 acres in farms in the watershed with 509 acres enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program. Approximately 86 percent of the farmland or 161,600 acres is cropland. Corn, soybeans and wheat are the primary crops grown on about 85 percent of the acreage. Vegetables are grown on 14 percent of the acreage and hay and pasture account for the remaining one percent. Poultry is the dominant type of livestock operation in the watershed.

Map of Delaware showing location of Broadkill-Smyrna Watershed

Physical Description

Landuse Urban Agriculture Confined Feeding Forest Wetland Water Other Total

Landuse	Urban	Agriculture	Confined Feeding	Forest	Wetland	Water	Other	Total
Acers	27,638	206,623	191	90,563	65,834	6,435	8,745	406,029
Percent	6.8	50.9	0.1	22.3	16.2	1.6	2.1	100.0

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:

Sassafras-Fallsington
Othello-Matapeake-Mattapex
Tidal Marsh

The Sassafras-Fallsington association accounts for about 35 Percent of the soils in Kent County. Sassafras soils are well drained, friable and dominantly level to gently sloping. Sassafras soils have few limitations except those of slope. Sassafras soils are intensively farmed and have only slight limitations for residential, commercial and industrial development. Fallsington soils have general physical properties similar to sassafras soils but are poorly drained. In addition, the water table is at or near the surface much of the year in areas that have not been artificially drained. If adequately drained they are suitable for crops, but poor natural drainage and high water tables severely limit there use for building sites. Fallsington soils are mainly in woodland but in areas that have been drained they are used intensively for corn and soybean production.

The Othello-Matapeake-Mattapex association accounts for six percent of the soils in Kent County. Othello soils are poorly drained and friable. Mattapeake soils are well drained and friable and Mattapex soils are moderately well drained and friable. Most of this association is suitable for cultivation and vegetable crops are grown extensively. Matapeake and Mattapex soils need artificial drainage to be productive and the sloping areas of Matpeake soils are subject to erosion. Othello soils have severe limitations for nonfarm uses and the others have slight to moderate limitations.

Tidal Marsh covers 11 percent of the land in Kent County and is located along Delaware Bay and along some major streams into the interior of the county. The soils are mostly organic and not suited to farming or most nonfarm uses, but they do provide very valuable wildlife habitat. The Bombay Hook Migratory Waterfowl Refuge is in this association and is part of the Atlantic flyway of migratory waterfowl.

Resource Concerns

The primary resource concern in the watershed is 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. Nutrients are also the focus of the CSP Tier II requirement. The state has designated the surface waters in the watershed of medium concern for water quality, however, the ground water in the watershed has a high to very high water quality concern. Ground water provided through private and municipal wells is the major source of water for agriculture, industry and
residential drinking water in the watershed. 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. Fish consumption advisories have been posted for several water bodies within the watershed; the Saint Jones River, Moores Lake, Silver Lake, and Wyoming Mill Pond.

Common Resource Areas

Mao of Delaware Watersheds with common resource area numbers

The Common Resource Areas for the watershed have been designated as 153C and 153B

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. Water quality data has been collected for the Saint Jones, Murderkill, Mispillion, Smyrna, and Leipsic river systems and the lakes and ponds that they supply water to. Nutrients and bacteria have been identified as the primary stressors in all the stream systems and water bodies. In addition the Saint Jones River has dioxin, PCB’s and several heavy metals listed as stressors impacting water quality.

Census and Social Data

The total population of the watershed based on the 2000 census is 125,800 people. The annual median household income in the area is $40,950. Approximately 10.7 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:

Watershed	Total	White	Black or African American	American	Asian	Some Other Race	Hispanic or Latino
Broadkill-Smyrna	125,800	90,828	26,166	755	2,264	1,635	4,151
Percent	100	72.2	20.8	0.6	1.8	1.3	3.3

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.

Watershed	Total Farms	Number of Farms		Principal Operators			New Operators
Watershed	Total Farms	Less than median size	With sales less than $40,000	Male	Female	Non-white	Less than 3 years on farm
Broadkill-Smyrna	781	364	465	703	72	81	6
Percent	100.0	54.6	59.6	90.0	10.0	3.0	1.0

For General and Application Information, visit the NRCS CSP home page.

Counties in the Watershed

Delaware

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
broadsmyrnahydro.pdf (242 KB) – This map portrays the network of streams that run through the Broadkill-Smyrna Watershed. The base layer is comprised of the topography of the watershed. Some, not all, of the major branches, creeks, and St. Jones River are labeled.
broadsmyrnalulc.pdf (270 KB) – This map portrays the different uses of land in the Broadkill-Smyrna Watershed. Farming, forestry, and wetlands are the three 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: This document supports the broadsmyrnalulc.pdf file.
broadsmyrnaroads.pdf (416 KB) – This map portrays the network of roads that run through the Broadkill-Smyrna Watershed. The base layer is comprised of the topography of the watershed. 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.
broadsmyrnancsid.pdf (226 KB) – This map portrays USDA’s 2006 NAIP Ortho product for the New Castle County portion of the Broadkill-Smyrna 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.
broadsmyrnaksid.pdf (950 KB) – This map portrays USDA’s 2006 NAIP Ortho product for the Kent County portion of the Broadkill-Smyrna 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.
broadsmyrnasussid.pdf (492 KB) – This map portrays USDA’s 2006 NAIP Ortho product for the Sussex County portion of the Broadkill-Smyrna 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.
broadsmyrnaksoils.pdf (1.5 MB) – This map portrays the most up-to-date soils for the Kent County portion of the Broadkill-Smyrna Watershed. The legend file shows what the colors stand for and their symbols. broadsmyrnaksoilslegend.pdf (19 KB) – Note: This document supports the BroadSmyrnaKsoils.pdf file.
broadsmyrnasussoils.pdf (1.2 MB) – This map portrays the most up-to-date soils for the Sussex County portion of the Broadkill-Smyrna Watershed. The legend file shows what the colors stand for and their symbols. broadsmyrnasussoilslegend.pdf (18 KB) – Note: This document supports the BroadSmyrnaSusSoils.pdf file.
broadsmyrnatopo.pdf (1.4 MB) – This map portrays the elevation and contour lines that makes up the Broadkill-Smyrna Watershed. Some, not all, roads, various landmarks, and water bodies labeled.
broadsmyrnancwaterbody.pdf (76 KB) – There are two significant bodies of water found throughout the New Castle County portion of the Broadkill-Smyrna Watershed. The river and pond both sit at the northern edge of the watershed. Some, not all, water features are labeled.
broadsmyrnakwaterbody.pdf (105 KB) – There are many significant bodies of water found throughout the Kent County portion of the Broadkill-Smyrna Watershed. The lakes, ponds, and rivers are numerous in this area of the watershed. Some, not all, major water bodies are labeled.
broadsmyrnasuswaterbody.pdf (99 KB) – There are significant bodies of water found throughout the Sussex County portion of the Broadkill-Smyrna Watershed. Some, not all, major ponds, rivers, and creeks are labeled.