Our Waterways
Characteristics
- The Choptank River is 68 miles long.
- The watershed consists of 509,000 acres which drain portions of Caroline, Dorchester, Queen Anne’s, and Talbot County, Maryland, and Kent County, Delaware.
- Its major tributaries include Harris Creek, Broad Creek, the Tred Avon River, Island Creek, and La Trappe Creek, as well as the Tuckahoe River which winds north through Caroline County, and Cabin and Hunting Creeks running south into Dorchester County.
- Agriculture and poultry production comprise roughly 60% of the land use in the watershed. The major crops are corn, soybeans, wheat, barley, and vegetables.
- 40,320 acres are urbanized, the remainder being forest or wetland.
- Eastern Bay, the Miles and Wye Rivers have similar demographics and land use patterns.
All of these tributaries are struggling with agricultural nutrient, animal waste, and septic and waste water pollution, and the other problems of increasing development and encroaching urbanization.
