DID YOU KNOW? 1 Online quiz and 1 interactive graphic Delaware’s 2 Test how much you’ve learned about Delaware’s water at 2 delawareonline.com/didyouknow 3 3 4 4 5 WATER5 1 WORLD Questions and facts that will quench your6 thirst for knowledge about the First State’s H20 6 2 Text by Ken Mammarella 1 7 Special to The News Journal 10 FUN FACTS 7 3 10 INTERESTING BODIES OF WATER 10 QUESTIONS 2 8 Ports of call: Many of Delaware’s municipalities developed two or Appoquinimink River: For nine years, ending in June, it had a support Is there enough water? three centuries ago by Europeans who liked living and working near 1 group, the Appoquinimink River Association. Tributaries include the evocatively Yes, said Gerald J. Kauffman, project director of the waterways for either relatively easy and cheap transportation (by boat) or power 8 4 named Deep Creek, Drawyers Creek and Hangmans Run. Water Resources Agency and state water coordinator. (for mills) – or both. 3 Blackbird1 Creek: A case involving a dam on the creek that reached Current rainfall exceeds usage, and he said studies foresee 9 2 no issues through 2030. Precipitation from 1981 to 2010 All the way over: When drawing boundaries, most states go the U.S. Supreme Court in 1829 is considered an important part in defining the dormant commerce clause, which prohibits “a state from passing legislation averaged 2 to 5 inches a month, according to the halfway into a river, but not Delaware for its northeastern edge. That’s 1 Delaware Geological Survey. Over that time, according to because the arc that forms the state’s top border was decreed in 1682 to contin- 9 5 that improperly burdens2 or discriminates against interstate commerce,” according to 4 3 Princeton University. the Partnership for the Delaware Estuary, rainfall has dra- ue into the Delaware River until you actually 10 matically increased, and days of heavy rainfall have also increased, at land in New Jersey. The Brandywine:1 After the Delaware, this creek/river times causing flooding. 6 2 3 probably had the greatest historical impact with mills that were Piedmont The great divide: The peninsular 10 4 1 What is Delaware’s water used for? divide is a line drawn by nature the splits 5 set up on it, north of Wilmington, to use free power of the fast- and eastern flowing water.2 People disagree on whether the name comes from Fifteen million people rely on the Delaware River, its streams and ground- Delaware: Delaware from top to bottom. Precipitation water, according to the Partnership for the Delaware Estuary. The nonprofit in a 2012 falling on one side eventually reaches the 4 mill owner Andreas Brainwende (an alternate version of his Waterways 3 5 name, Brantwyn, 2lives on in a du Pont family house that’s report says 8 billion gallons are used daily in the basin, with 79 percent going to indus- drain into the Delaware Bay; on the other side it goes to the 7 try and power generation. Use is relative. The water used by power plants ends up as Chesapeake Bay. A Water Resources Agency 6 now part3 of the DuPont Country Club) or brandewijn, the Delaware 5 Dutch word for brandy.1 steam in the air or as warmer water back in the waterways. estuary map splits the state into four major water- 6 3 sheds, referring to the areas that drain into 8 4 Broadkill River: The river was popular How can you protect Delaware’s water? the same waterways. The greenish ones in 4 for shipbuilding2 early in the 19th century, and • Favor native plants, which don’t need watering, even in Delaware’s typical sum- Peninsular the northwest are called the Piedmont; the 7 6 divide line 7 you4 can get close to it today in downtown mer droughts. light blue ones in the east drain to the Milton on the Governor’s Walk. • Plant trees. “They soak up rain and purify water,” Kauffman said. Delaware estuary; and the blue ones to Southeast 5 5 3 • Reduce fertilizer and pesticide use, or use slow-release or organic fertilizers. the southeast drain to the Inland Bays. 9 7 Christina River: This river was Delaware: 8 8 5 named for the queen of Sweden at • Don’t pour harmful stuff down the drain. Used motor oil can be disposed over at sev- The red ones on the west drain into eral Delaware Solid Waste Authority drop-off centers. Waterways the Chesapeake, and you can see the 6 the time of the first European settle- drain into the peninsular divide starting in 8 ment4 of Wilmington in 1638, and its What’s in Delaware’s Inland Bays 6 6branches – including the White Clay Creek, Maryland and moving into 9 drinking water? Delaware south of Newark and 10 Mill Creek and Red Clay Creek – have all 9 7 Since 1974, federal law has required systems that steadily heading east as you lent their5 1 names to other things on the move south. 1 9 7 map. serve at least 25 people to test their water. 7 10 Wilmington’s water division, for example, says in its 1 8 Delaware River: The latest annual report that it monitors for more than The 6 state’s biggest river starts with Patrick 10 10 8 2 100 contaminants in water sources, filtrations plants two branches in New York, and customers’ taps. The federal Environmental Principle: 2 includes 200 tributaries and runs 330 8 9 Protection Agency sets limits on various contami- Ruth Patrick, 2 1 miles7 3 before reaching the Atlantic nants. Some occur naturally, and some enter the sup- Western Delaware: the first 9 Ocean. It is the longest undammed ply from businesses, homes, wild animals and farms. river east of the Mississippi. Famous Waterways drain into environ- Common contaminants include nitrates, iron (which 3 8things on it before it reaches the Chesapeake Bay mentalist to serve on the 1 9 10 4 turns water orange) and sulfur (with its distinctive DuPont Co. board of 3 2 10 Delaware include the Delaware aroma). directors, is known for developing the Patrick Principle. As Water Gap National Recreation The New York Times explained when she died in 4 1 9Area,5 the spot where George How is the public water treated? September at age 105, it means “the number and kinds of 2 10 Washington crossed on Christmas The process depends upon the source, according species in a body of water” indicate its health. She special- 4 1 3 Day 1776 and the federally desig- to Joe DiNunzio of Artesian Resources. Most of its ized in research on one-celled organisms called diatoms 2 10nated6 Central Delaware Valley supply comes from wells, and chlorine is added to disinfect it, and fluoride is added to and was co-founder of the Stroud Water Research Center 5 American Viticultural Area for strengthen teeth. Its water treatment process also includes removing iron and adjust- in Avondale, Pa. 5 3 2 vineyards. ing the water to a neutral pH. Canals run through it: The busiest canal in 4 3 7 Indian River Inlet: Why so many road signs announcing watersheds? The Indian River Inlet, the country is the Chesapeake & Pride of ownership. “If people can identify their home watershed, they are more Delaware – 35 feet deep, 450 feet 6 which connects the Inland 4 1 Bays in Sussex County and the likely to adopt behavior to protect it,” Kauffman said. But first, people need to under- wide and 14 miles long. It was first 6 3 4 8 stand the term. “A watershed is all the land that sheds water into the stream when it suggested by 17th century settler 5 Atlantic sometimes exists, and 1 sometimes it doesn’t. According to rains,” according to the Partnership for the Delaware Estuary. “A basin is a large Augustine Herman, but it didn’t watershed, or several watersheds, that all drain to one waterway.” An estuary, by the open until 1829, and it has been 7 2 the Delaware Center for the 5 5 Inland9 Bays, it has “complex histo- way, is the part of the river that is tidal, where fresh and salt water mix. For the improved several times since. The 7 4 Delaware, that’s up to Trenton, N.J. Lewes-Rehoboth Canal has its own 6 2 ry” of opening, closing – and mov- support group (http://canal- ing (averaging 153 feet a year north- C&D 3 How does water from home wells differ from water connection.org/) and new prominence 8 6 ward from 1800 to 1843). Some CANAL 6 10 supplied by municipalities and companies? from water taxi service. The three-mile 8 5 3 changes occur dramatically in storms, Assawoman Canal in Sussex County is part of 7 4 particularly the nor’easter of 1962; “Most people couldn’t tell the difference,” said Dave Kelly, president of the Maryland- Holts Landing State Park. 7 some are result of human intervention; Delaware Water Well Association. Home wells don’t fall 9 4 and some are nature’s slow processes. under as many laws, but families are recommended to Drinkability: The salt line refers to where fresh water 7 6 test their water annually, and many use chemicals to filter meets salt water, and the mix is too salty to drink. For the 9 8 5 8 Nanticoke River: The sediment and adjust the pH, he said. Chlorination and 70% Delaware, the line is usually around the Delaware Memorial Bridge, accord- nation’s first national historic water fluoridation are unlikely additions, so families who drink Creeks ing to the Partnership for the Delaware Estuary, but heavy rains will push it 5 trail was declared along with the from their wells may need regular fluoride treatments and rivers south, and a drought in the 1960s allowed it to creep up to northern 10 8 6 Chesapeake and its tributaries in 2006 to from their dentists, he said.