Chincoteague Watershed

8 Digit Hydrologic Unit Code - 02060010

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 Chincoteague 8-digit Hydrologic Unit Code (HUC) subbasin covers 202,945 acres. The entire Delaware portion of the Chincoteague watershed is in Sussex County. There are a total of 398 farms located in the basin. The average farm size is 216 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 86,046 acres in farms in the watershed with 103 acres enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program. Approximately 83 percent of the farmland or 71,400 acres is cropland. Corn, soybeans and wheat are the primary crops grown on about 82 percent of the acreage. Vegetables are grown on 17 percent of the acreage and hay and pasture account for the remaining one percent. Livestock operations are primarily based on poultry production.

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:

• Evesboro-Rumsford
• Pocomoke-Fallsington-Evesboro
• Fallsington-Pocomoke-Woodstown

The Evesboro-Rumsford Association accounts for about 47 Percent of the soils in Sussex County and the majority of soils in the watershed. In the watershed it covers the areas that surround Indian River Bay and part of Rehoboth Bay. The landscape is mostly nearly level or gently sloping, but locally there are moderately sloping, dunelike ridges, some depressions and potholes and steeper slopes bordering some major streams. Evesboro soils are droughty and Rumford soils are somewhat droughty. Evesboro and Rumford soils are suited to most crops grown in the county, including corn, soybeans, melons, and various truck or cannery crops. Droughtiness is the main limitation but supplemental irrigation is readily available. Erosion generally is not a problem, but in areas where water is concentrated by a road or other structure there is a hazard of gullying. If the surface soil is unprotected, loose and dry, blowing sand is a hazard to young tender seedlings. Most of this association is suited to residential and other nonfarm uses, but there are some limitations that result from the loose, sandy nature of the major soils.

The Pocomoke-Fallsington-Evesboro Association covers about 12 percent of Sussex County. Pocomoke soils are very poorly drained and Fallsington soils are moderately permeable and poorly drained. The water table is at or near the surface for long periods during the year for both of these soils. Pocomoke and Fallsington soils occupy nearly flat areas that are wet unless artificially drained. Undrained areas are limited chiefly to woodland and wildlife habitat. High yields, particularly of corn and soybeans, can be obtained in drained areas. Blueberries are a locally important crop. Community owned ditches furnish outlets for drainage systems on individual farms. Generally the drainage systems are adequate, but require good maintenance to remain effective.

The Fallsington-Pocomoke-Woodstown Association covers about 12 percent of the county. The properties of the Fallsington and Pocomoke soils have been described in the previous soil association. Woodstown soils are moderately well drained. The water table is within 1.5 to 2.0 feet of the surface during part of the year. All the soils of this association require improved drainage for farming to occur. Corn and soybeans are the principal crops. These soils have severe limitations for nonfarm uses because they are wet.

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. The state has designated both the surface and ground waters in the Chincoteague watershed to be of high concern for water quality. The Inland Bays, which include all of Rehoboth and Indian River Bays, and part of the Assawoman Bay are of particular concern due to there importance as fisheries and high use water contact recreation areas. 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.

Common Resource Areas

The Common Resource Area for the entire watershed has been designated as 153C.

Studies and Assessments

The state of Delaware’s Division of Natural Resources has completed Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) Assessments of the Indian River and its tributaries. Water quality data indicates that Nutrients and bacteria are the primary stressors in the stream system. Fish advisories have been posted for the Indian River, Indian River Bay and Rehoboth Bay.

NRCS has completed an extensive PL-566 Watershed Land Treatment Project in the watershed which provided poultry manure sheds to help manage nutrients and poultry composters to reduce bacteria and pathogens from dead bird disposal. The installation of filter strips along drainage ways and the use of cover crops have also been strongly promoted through the EQIP program.

Census and Social Data

The total population of the watershed based on the 2000 census is 70,200 people. The annual median household income in the area is $39,208. Approximately 10.5 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:

W/S	Total	White	Black or African American	American Indian	Asian	Some Other Race	Hispanic or Latino
Chincoteague	70,200	55,107	10,460	421	491	632	3,089
Percent	100	78.5	14.9	0.6	0.7	0.9	4.4

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.

Some Other Race

Watershed	Total Farms	Number of Farms		Principal Operators			New Operators
		Less than Median Size	With Sales less than $40,000	Male	Female	Non-White	Less than 3 years on farm
Chincoteague	398	310	133	338	60	12	5
Percent		77.9	33.4	84.9	15.1	3.0	1.3

Based on median size of farm, and sales less than $40,000, 33 to 55 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 3 to 15 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.

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Technical Information Maps of the Chincoteague River Watershed

The Following Documents Require Adobe Acrobat

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

File Description	Map Thumbnail
chincohydro.pdf (2.5 MB) – This map portrays the network of streams that run through the Chincoteague Watershed. The base layer is comprised of the new 2006 orthoimagery. Some, not all, of the major ditches, branches, and creeks found throughout this watershed are labeled.   There is a canal, which is located in the southeastern portion of the watershed.
chincolulc.pdf (378 KB) – This map portrays the different uses of land in the Chincoteague Watershed.  Farming and forestry 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 (14 KB) – Note: Legend document for the chincolulc.pdf file.
chincoroads.pdf (2.6 MB) – This map portrays the network of roads that run through the Chincoteague 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.
chincosid.pdf (5.7 MB) – This map portrays USDA’s 2006 NAIP Ortho product for the Chincoteague Watershed.  The imagery is true-color, which means it lacks the reddish tint of the 2002 ortho.  This map scale is 1:12,000 and has a 1-meter resolution.
chincosoils.pdf 1.5 MB) – This map portrays the most up-to-date soils for the Chincoteague Watershed.  The legend file shows what the colors stand for and their symbols. chincosoilslegend.pdf 17 KB) – Note:  Legend document for the chincosoils.pdf file.
chincotopo.pdf (5 MB) – This map portrays the elevation and contour lines that makes up the Chincoteague Watershed.  Some, not all roads, various landmarks, and water bodies are labeled.
chincowaterbody.pdf 2.4 MB) – There are three inland bays found throughout the Chincoteague Watershed. All of them sit on the eastern edge of the watershed.

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Watershed Contact

Paul Petrichenko, Assistant State Conservationist for Programs
Phone: 302-678-4180

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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