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Christina River BasinStatus ReportThe Christina River Basin
The Christina River Basin occupies 565 square miles in Delaware, Pennsylvania, and Maryland, and includes four major watersheds--the Brandywine Creek, the Red Clay Creek, the White Clay Creek, and the Christina River. The Christina Basin is an interstate watershed. The upper portion and headwaters in Pennsylvania occupy 2/3 of the drainage area while the lower 1/3 is below the Mason-Dixon Line in the State of Delaware. The Christina Basin is unique because it includes the largest concentration of mushroom growers in the U.S. The Christina Basin is a major source of water supply for residents of Chester County, Pennsylvania and New Castle County, Delaware and its waters provide varied recreational and ecological opportunities for canoeists and aficionados of the Wyeth style of art. Larger municipalities in the Christina Basin include Kennett Square, West Chester, Downingtown and Coastesville, Pennsylvania, and Newark and Wilmington, Delaware. Description of the Problems The Christina River Basin is a rural, yet rapidly suburbanizing watershed which in many ways is characteristic of a typical mid-Atlantic watershed. Land uses in the watershed is approximately 1/3 urban/suburban, 1/3 forested/open space, and 1/3 agriculture. Existing water quality problems emanate from wastewater discharges, agricultural runoff, superfund sites, and runoff from new development. Fish consumption advisories are posted along reaches of the Brandywine Creek, Red Clay Creek, and Christina River. Percent impervious levels in developed watersheds exceed 10 to 15%, which are maximum thresholds needed to protect stream habitat and fisheries. The problems in the waters of the Christina Basin are representative of the problems that suburbanizing watersheds in Pennsylvania and Delaware face daily. The base map identifies the status of existing stream water quality in the Christina Basin. Description of the Restoration Efforts Fortunately, a tool know as watershed management is available to address problems in the Christina River Basin. Several years ago, the States of Pennsylvania and Delaware had disagreements on how to implement water quality standards. The Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) recommended that the States get together to form an interagency, interstate watershed management group known as the Christina Basin Water Quality Management Committee. The local coordinators of the cooperative Christina Basin Committee include the Chester County Water Resources Agency (CCWRA) and the Chester County Conservation District (CCCD) for Pennsylvania and the University of Delaware Water Resources Agency (UDWRA) for Delaware. The Committee includes representatives from Federal, State and local agencies from Delaware and Pennsylvania. The mission of the Christina Basin Strategy is to identify the sources of point and non-point pollutants, develop a watershed strategy to protect and maintain the water quality in the Christina Basin which is ultimately used as drinking water for 75% of the New Castle County, Delaware and 40% of Chester County, Pennsylvania. The Christina Strategy is especially important because the courts have decreed the Pennsylvania and Delaware should prepare Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDL) by the year 2000. The Christina Basin Committee established a 5-year watershed program from 1995-2000 which includes the following elements: GIS Watershed Inventory Stormwater Ordinance Inventory Stormwater Monitoring Program Stream Water Quality Monitoring Program Public Education/Outreach Program Best Management Practice Implementation Projects Construction of a TMDL model The GIS Watershed inventory includes existing geology, soils, land use, zoning, outfalls/intakes, and hazardous waste site data. This information is used to prioritize watersheds, identify point/nonpoint source pollutants, provide inputs to TMDL model, and develop graphics fro the Public Education Program. The GIS watershed inventory includes an 18-map series which is available to the public in hard copy or digital format. The Stormwater Ordinance Inventory includes review of ordinances and zoning codes from over 60 municipal governments in the Christina Basin. The inventory determined that some ordinances needed to be upgraded, say to provide minimum 100-year storm design criteria, to reduce stormwater quality impacts from new development. Resulting from the inventory are recommendations to strengthen the stormwater ordinances to provide more unified water quality criteria in the development codes. The stormwater monitoring program includes 11 stations in the Christina Basin. A series of storm events are monitored to characterize the pollutant loads from representative land uses in the watershed. The stormwater pollutant load data will be used to calibrate a nonpoint sources runoff computer model which will be input to the TMDL watershed model. The Surface Water Quality Monitoring Program includes monitoring by the Delaware, Pennsylvania and Chester County Water Resources Agencies at over 30 stream-side stations in the Christina Basin. The monitoring is conducted bimonthly. The laboratory results are utilized to determine water quality trends and later as inputs fro the TMDL model. Initial results indicate the levels of nutrients such as phosphorus and nitrogen are rising, yet levels of DO and TSS are improving. NPDES Point Source Water Discharges in the Delaware portion of the Christina Basin have declined from 34 in 1975 to 10 in 1995, which is good news for water quality. The Public Education/Outreach Program is a focal point of the Christina Basin Water Quality Management Strategy. The Public Education Program is led by the Brandywine Valley Association and includes: Christina Basin Brochure Christina Basin Task Force with environmental groups, watershed organizations, water suppliers, and wastewater discharges Basin Scapes Homeowners Guides Newsletters Door Hangers Storm Drain Stenciling Internet Web Site Conferences Outreach Meetings Annual citizen bus tours of the watershed The Christina Basin Best Management Practices (BMP) Implementation Projects included the following restoration efforts to date: Frienfield Farms Riparian Corridor Protection Plan Hills of Sullivan Infiltration BMP Pocopson Township Wetland BMP Modern Mushrooms Tree Plantation East Marlborough Wetland Project Hy Tech Compost and Mushroom Farm Buck Run Riparian Planting Buck and Doe Run Farms, Reforestation Project Buck Run Farms Riparian Planting Sadsbury Township Stream Restoration City of Newark Bioengineering Project USDA-NRCS Agricultural Conservation Projects The data collected as part of the Christina Basin Strategy will be used to construct a TMDL Model for the watershed. The TMDL will be completed in 2000 and will be used to determine the reductions in point and nonpoint source loads necessary to meet water quality standards. The restoration efforts in the Christina Basin are significant because this watershed is one of the first in Pennsylvania and Delaware which will adopt a TMDL. |
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