Delaware Watersheds

The Dragon Run Creek watershed is located in eastern New Castle County. The 7.7-mile-long mainstem of the creek rises in a swampy area north of Lums Pond and flows due east to its outfall in the Delaware River. The Dragon Run is free flowing but has a tidegate at its mouth, allowing discharge to the Delaware River only at low tide. Thus, there are no tidal influences on Dragon Run.

The land use in the watershed is dominated by urban and agriculture uses.

There are nutrient and bacteria TMDLs for the Dragon Run Creek Watershed that require 40% reductions in nitrogen and phosphorus loads and 15% reduction in bacteria loads. There are several point source facilities in the watershed but because of the outfall locations that do not discharge to Dragon Run Creek, there are only nonpoint sources of pollution in this watershed.

The designated uses set for the Dragon Run Creek watershed include primary recreation, secondary recreation, fish, aquatic life, and wildlife, industrial water supply, and agricultural water supply and public water supply sources in the freshwater segments.

This watershed has sites sampled for a consistent suite of environmental contaminants. These contaminants are broadly classified as Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs), Semi-Volatile Organic Compounds (SVOCs), Pesticides, Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs) and Metals as listed using USEPA and DNREC defined standards. When sites are adjacent to water bodies sediment samples are collected to assess potential impact from a site on the health of the waters. Learn more information specific to this watershed from the DNREC Advanced Facility Search Tool.

Delaware's Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC), Division of Fish and Wildlife conducts on-going inventories of natural communities as well as rare and declining species, (e.g., state and globally-rare plants, birds, insects, mussels, reptiles, and amphibians). It maintains a database, both electronic and manual, of its findings throughout the state. Learn more about the wildlife and plant communities in this watershed from the DNREC Division of Fish and Wildlife Conservation Programs.

In addition, the Division of Fish and Wildlife, working with the University of Delaware's Institute for Public Administration - Water Resources Center, maintains online databases about plants and plant communities in Delaware. Learn more about the plant communities in this watershed from the DNREC Division of Fish and Wildlife.

For more detailed information on this watershed, its water quality and resources, check out the following resources:

Delaware TMDLs

Delaware Whole Basin Reports

CCMP for the Delaware Estuary

View of Dragon Run Creek
Photo credit: DNREC's Watershed Assessment and Management Section