Christina Basin Targeted Watershed Grant Final Report
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2008-12
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Abstract
The Christina Basin is one of only two interstate watersheds in the Delaware River Basin, encompassing 565 square miles throughout Delaware, Pennsylvania, and Maryland. The Christina Basin includes four subwatersheds—the Brandywine, Red Clay, and White Clay Creeks, and the Christina River—that provide 100 million gallons per day (mgd) of drinking water to over 0.5 million people in three states. The mission of the Christina Basin Clean Water Partnership is to restore the waters of the Brandywine, Red Clay, and White Clay Creeks, and Christina River in Delaware and Pennsylvania to fishable, swimmable, and potable status by 2015.
Water quality concerns in the Christina Basin have a long history dating to just after the Second World War when the nation’s first small watershed organization, the Brandywine Valley Association (BVA), was formed by concerned residents. The Christina Basin Water Quality Management Committee, comprised of multiple levels of government, private groups, and academia, was formed by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) and the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) in 1994 with the role of coordinating a scientific approach to improve the water quality in the basin and meet the region’s water needs. The committee evolved into the Christina Basin Clean Water Partnership, which includes stakeholders co-coordinated by the University of Delaware’s, Institute for Public AdministrationWater Resources Agency (IPA-WRA) in Delaware and Chester County Water Resources Authority (CCWRA) and Chester County Conservation District (CCCD) in Pennsylvania. In January, 2001, the USEPA issued the low flow total maximum daily load (TMDL) for the Christina Basin. In April, 2005, the USEPA established the high flow TMDLs for the Christina Basin, and these were revised in September, 2006. The partnership is currently implementing pollution control strategies in both states to meet the TMDL targets.