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The Christina Basin has unique water supply, ecological, recreational, and historic attributes including:

  • Recipient of a $1 million Targeted Watershed Initiative grant, the top-ranked application in the U.S. out of 170 watersheds evaluated by the USEPA.
  • Is one of only two interstate watersheds in the entire 13,000-sq.-mi. Delaware River Basin.
  • Its Christina River is the only stream in Delaware that flows through three states, the upper two-thirds in Pennsylvania, the lower third in Delaware, plus a small sliver in Maryland.
  • Includes four watersheds—the Brandywine, Red Clay, and White Clay Creeks, and Christina River.
  • Contains the White Clay Creek in Delaware and Pennsylvania, designated by the President and Congress as a National Wild and Scenic River and the only river in the U.S. to have been designated as such on a watershed, as opposed to a river-segment, basis.
  • Contains streams that are getting cleaner.  Water quality is improving for dissolved oxygen, phosphorus, and sediment, but declining for nitrogen.
  • Provides 100 million gallons per day of drinking water for over a half-million people.
  • Is the largest drinking water source in Delaware, providing water supply for 60 percent of Delaware’s population.
  • Boasts dozens of miles of high-quality cold-water trout streams in Pennsylvania and the only six trout streams in Delaware.
  • Provides habitat for protected species:  bald eagle, brook trout (Pennsylvania’s state fish), cerulean warbler, and bog turtle.
  • Has water supply, ecological, and recreational value that approaches $300 million annually.
  • Has a growing ecotourism industry with canoe and kayak liveries along the Brandywine River.
  • Is within commuting distance of Wilmington, West Chester, and Philadelphia. The real estate industry designated the rolling Piedmont valleys as one of the top ten markets in the U.S.
  • Includes stream valleys that are the inspiration for the Brandywine school of art popularized by Pyle and the Wyeths.
  • Is home to the site of the first permanent European settlement in the Delaware Valley in 1638 at the mouth of the Christina River in present-day Wilmington.
  • Became the backdrop for the largest battle in the War for Independence along the Brandywine and First State’s only battle of the Revolution along the Christina River at Cooch’s Bridge during the 1777 invasion of Delaware.
  • Its Brandywine Valley Association formed the country’s first small watershed organization in 1945.
  • Has the largest concentration of mushroom farms nationwide in Hockessin, Del., and Kennett Square, Pa.
  • Its Port of Wilmington at the mouth of the Christina River is the nation’s largest banana port, importing 1 million tons per year.
  • In 1802 its Brandywine Creek resourced DuPont’s creekside mills, which had a total hydropower head exceeding the height of Niagara Falls.
  • Home to the Wilmington, Del., international headquarters of DuPont, Gore, and Disney, among others.