Delaware Watersheds

The Shellpot Creek watershed is located in northeastern New Castle County. The six-mile long mainstem of the creek rises just north of Wilmington and flows southeast to the Delaware River. Shellpot Creek is a tributary of the Delaware River and drains directly to the Delaware River. The lower one mile of the creek is tidal; the remainder of the watershed is freshwater non-tidal.

This watershed is the most suburbanized drainage area in the Piedmont Basin. Very little agriculture takes place in the watershed and a considerable portion is covered by impervious surfaces that promote rapid runoff. The watershed is highly urbanized with commercial, residential, and industrial land uses. The town of Bellefonte is located in the watershed.
Rail transportation crosses the area for the Conrail and Amtrak lines.

The TMDLs for the Shellpot Creek require a 35% reduction in nitrogen and phosphorus south of Business Route 13, a cap on nitrogen and phosphorus loads north of Business Route 13, a 74% reduction in bacteria, and a 28% reduction in bacteria from CSO 31.

The Shellpot Creek watershed has the following use designations: primary contact recreation, secondary contact recreation, fish, aquatic life, and wildlife, agricultural water supply for freshwater segments, and industrial water supply.

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.

The region is home to several large recreational facilities: Bellevue State Park, Fox Point State Park, Rockwood Museum, Bringhurst Woods Park, Rock Manor Golf Course and many community parks. Fish and wildlife recreational opportunities are limited within the Shellpot Creek watershed but Bellevue and Fox Point state parks provide public fishing areas in the watershed.

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

Delaware TMDLs

Delaware Watershed Plans

Delaware Whole Basin Reports

View of Bellevue State Park covered in snow
Photo credit: Dave Nemeth