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Nanticoke River Watershed

8 Digit Hydrologic Unit Code - 02060008

Blackwater-Wicomico Watershed

8 Digit Hydrologic Unit Code - 02060007

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 Nanticoke River 8-digit Hydrologic Unit Code (HUC) subbasin covers 316,371 acres. The small portion of the Blackwater-Wicomico adjacent to the Nanticoke covers 1,313 acres. The two watersheds cover a combined 317,684 acres. About 85 percent of the Nanticoke River watershed and all of the Blackwater-Wicomico are in Sussex County. The northern section of the Nanticoke River basin about about 15 percent is in Kent County. There are a total of 674 farms located in the two basins. 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 149,399 acres in farms in the watershed with 222 acres enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program. Approximately 83 percent of the farmland or 124,000 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.

Map of Delaware with Blackwater-Wicomico Watershed outlined

Physical Description

Landuse Urban Agriculture Confined Feeding Forest Wetland Water Other Total

Landuse	Urban	Agriculture	Confined Feeding	Forest	Wetland	Water	Other	Total
Acers	7,284	163,565	410	126,478	1,771	981	17,195	317,684
Percent	2.3	51.5	.01	39.8	0.6	0.3	5.4	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:

Evesboro-Rumsford
Fallsington-Saasafras-Woodstown

The Evesboro-Rumsford Association accounts for about 47 Percent of the soils in Sussex County and the majority of soils in the watershed. The area it encompasses surrounds Seaford and Laurel and includes most of the Nanticoke River Watershed. 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 Fallsington-Sassafras-Woodstown Association occupies about 12 percent of the land area in the county. The largest area is in the northwestern part of the county in the upper reaches of the Nanticoke River Basin. It also extends into the Kent County portion of the watershed. There is another large area about 4 miles east of Bridgeville. The landscape is a broad, nearly level upland that has many depressions and small drainageways. There are few major streams, but the association includes the headwaters of the Nanticoke River. A large part of the association is naturally wet, and at least half of it is covered with second-growth hardwoods.

The Sassafras soils are well drained and the Woodstown soils are moderately well drained. Farming is limited to the Sassafras soils and the parts of the Fallsington and Woodstown that have been artificially drained. Corn and soybeans are the principal crops.

Sasafras soils have few limitations for nonfarm uses. Nearly all the houses and buildings are on these soils. Woodstown and Fallsington soils have moderate to severe limitations for most non farm uses.

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 both the surface and ground waters in the Nanticoke watershed to be of high concern for water quality. 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.

Map of Delaware showing Location of all Watersheds in Delaware

Common Resource Areas

The Common Resource Areas for the watershed have been designated as153B and 153C.

Studies and Assessments

The state of Delaware’s Division of Natural Resources has completed Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) Assessments of the Nanticoke River and its tribuataries. Water quality data indicates that Nutrients and bacteria are the primary stressors in the stream system. No fish advisories have been posted for the Nanticoke River but several ponds in the watershed have fish and swimming advisories.

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 57,100 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:

Watershed	Total	White	Black or African American	American	Asian	Some Other Race
Hispanic or Latino
Nanicoke River & Blackwarter-Wicomico	57,100	44,824	8,508	343	400	514	2,512
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

CSP W/S	Total farms	No. of Farms		Principal Operators			New Operators
CSP W/S	Total farms	Less than Median Size	With Sales less than $40,000	Male	Female	Non-White	Less than 3 years on farm
Nanticoke River & BW Wicomico	674	368	225	572	102	21	9
Percent	100.0	54.6	33.4	90.4	15.1	3.1	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.

Counties in the Upper Nanticoke Watershed

Delaware

Sussex County

Technical Information Maps of the Nanicoke Watershed

The Following Documents Require Adobe Acrobat
NOTE: The MB Files are Very Large and will require time to Download

File Description	Map Thumbnail
nanticokehydro.pdf – This map portrays the network of streams that run through the Nanticoke River Watershed. The base layer is comprised of the topographic layer of the watershed. Some, but not all, of the major ditches, branches, and creeks found throughout this watershed are labeled.
nanticokelulc.pdf – This map portrays the different uses of land in the Nanticoke River 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 – Note: Legend document for the Nanticokelulc.pdf file.
nanticokeroads.pdf – This map portrays the network of roads that run through the Nanticoke River Watershed. The base layer is comprised of the topographic layer of the watershed. The roads layer was created by DelDOT last year and the centerlines match up perfectly with each road. Some, but not all, of the major roads found throughout this watershed are labeled.
nanticokesussid.pdf – This map portrays USDA’s 2006 NAIP Ortho product for the Sussex County portion of the Nanticoke River 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.
nanticokeksid.pdf – This map portrays the USDA’s 2006 NAIP Ortho product for the Kent County portion of the Nanticoke River 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.
nanticokesussoils.pdf – This map portrays the most up-to-date soils for the Sussex County portion of the Nanticoke River Watershed. The legend file shows what the colors stand for and their symbols. nanticokesussoilslegend.pdf – Note: legend document that supports the nanticokesussoils.pdf pdf file.
nanticokeksoils.pdf – This map portrays the most up-to-date soils for the Kent County portion of the Nanticoke River Watershed. The legend file shows what the colors stand for and their symbols. nanticokeksoilslegend.pdf - Note: legend document that supports the nanticokeksoils.pdf file.
nanticoketopo.pdf – This map portrays the elevation and contour lines that makes up the Nanticoke River Watershed. Some, but not all, roads, various landmarks, and water bodies labeled.
nanticokesuswaterbody.pdf – This map portrays all of the significant bodies of water in the Sussex County portion of the Nanticoke River Watershed. Some, but not all, of the ponds, creeks, are labeled as well as the Nanicoke River.