The Chesapeake Bay Basin was the second of the four watershed basins we assessed under the Whole Basin Management approach, focusing on comprehensive and coordinated environmental improvement. After completing our assessment, we moved to developing and implementing a plan to improve environmental quality within the basin.

This phased approach is designed to protect the environment, open lines of communication between you and our department, maximize wise resource use, and promote environmental education and stewardship.

The Chesapeake Bay Basin, at 769 square miles, is Delaware's largest, extending northward from the state's southern border, encompassing nearly half of Sussex County, crossing through the western third of Kent County, and extending up into New Castle County.

Groundwater quality is highly variable throughout the basin, with a mix of natural quality issues and human impacts. Most of the groundwater within the unconfined aquifer, though, is still safe for drinking water supply purposes.

The Chesapeake Basin has one of the highest percentages (95%) of land area served by septic systems. Due to the rural nature of the basin, recent feasibility studies indicated that it will not be possible to provide central sewer services for presently unsewered locations in the basin. However, residential development will only continue, so we will be ensuring that septic systems will meet all requirements designed to protect groundwater quality.

Since the Chesapeake Basin's soils respond well to management, the region continues to be particularly favorable for a broad range of agricultural practices. Today, 50% of the basin's land is used for agriculture, 39% is dedicated to forestry, and the remaining 11% is either urbanized or other developed land use. General agricultural soil management practices are in widespread use.

We've found degraded surface water quality from point and nonpoint sources in most of the basin's streams, which is an issue we will all have to work together to improve. Urban and agricultural runoff are two areas where we need to focus our attention on reducing the amount of pollutants we add to our streams, ponds, and wetlands.

As you visit the different areas of our site, we'd like to invite you to use our contact form to send us your questions, comments, suggestions, and ideas for how we might all work together to improve the quality of our environment for today and tomorrow.