The Chesapeake Bay has a vast watershed, which means that the water—and the pollution it carries—drains from parts of Maryland, Virginia, Delaware, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York and all of the District of Columbia and into the Bay.
Do we live in the Chesapeake Bay watershed?
We all live in a watershed. Some watersheds, like that of a stream or creek, are small. Others, like the Chesapeake Bay watershed, are large.
What does the watershed have to do with the Chesapeake Bay?
The Chesapeake Bay watershed, or draingage basin, encompasses six states – New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, and the District of Columbia. A drainage basin is a giant system of creeks, streams, and rivers that all flow into a common outlet, which in this case is the Chesapeake Bay.
How many people live on the Chesapeake Bay watershed?
18.4 million people
In 2020, an estimated 18.4 million people lived in the Chesapeake Bay watershed: a 0.23% increase from 2019. Experts predict the watershed’s population will increase to over 22 million by the year 2050.
Where does the water in the Chesapeake Bay watershed come from?
Collectively, the Chesapeake’s three largest rivers—the Susquehanna, Potomac and James Rivers—provide more than 80 percent of the fresh water to the Bay. The Chesapeake Bay watershed has 150 major rivers and streams, but contains more than 100,000 smaller tributaries.
Why are watersheds important?
We all live in a watershed, and watershed condition is important to everyone and everything that uses and needs water. Healthy watersheds provide critical services, such as clean drinking water, productive fisheries, and outdoor recreation, that support our economies, environment and quality of life.
Why the Chesapeake Bay is important?
It is one of the most productive estuaries in the world, with over 3,600 species of animals and plants. The bay provides vitally important habitats for wildlife, lots of recreational opportunities for people, and is an important fishery upon which both people and wildlife depend.
What is the largest watershed in the US?
the Mississippi River Watershed
The largest watershed in the United States is the Mississippi River Watershed, which drains 1.15 million square miles from all or parts of 31 U.S. states and two Canadian provinces stretching from the Rockies to the Appalachians!
What is the largest watershed in America?
The Mississippi River watershed
The Mississippi River watershed is the biggest watershed in the United States, draining more than three million square kilometers (one million square miles) of land. The Mississippi River watershed stretches from the Appalachian Mountains in the east to the Rocky Mountains in the west.
How clean is the Chesapeake Bay?
Preliminary data indicates that the water quality of the Chesapeake Bay and its tidal tributaries has reached a record high: an estimated 42 percent is now considered to meet clean water standards. This is a slight improvement over the previous record high of 40 percent reported in 2017.
Who is affected by the Chesapeake Bay?
As such a large estuary, the Bay impacts the health and safety of thousands of species of animals and plants, as well as the 18 million people who live in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. The Chesapeake Bay’s ecosystem impacts the quality of the air we breathe, the water we drink and the food we eat.
Which cities are located in the Chesapeake Bay watershed?
The Chesapeake Bay watershed (drainage basin) extends about five hundred miles south from the headwaters of Otsego Lake, near Cooperstown, New York to the Atlantic Ocean and Suffolk, Virginia. It extends east from mountain streams near Blacksburg, Virginia to Berlin, Maryland (near Ocean City).
What is the Chesapeake Bay known for?
The Chesapeake Bay has the largest land-to-water ratio (14:1) of any coastal water body in the world. More than 100,000 streams and rivers thread through the watershed and eventually flow into the Bay. Everyone within the Chesapeake Bay watershed is just minutes from one of the streams or rivers.
What types of water does a watershed include?
The watershed consists of surface water–lakes, streams, reservoirs, and wetlands–and all the underlying groundwater. Larger watersheds contain many smaller watersheds. It all depends on the outflow point; all of the land that drains water to the outflow point is the watershed for that outflow location.
What are 5 facts about the Chesapeake Bay?
10 Things You Didn’t Know About the Chesapeake Bay
- The Bay holds about 18 trillion gallons of water.
- Only about half of the water in the Bay comes from the ocean.
- Roughly 51 billion gallons of water enter the Bay each day from the 100,000 streams, creeks, and rivers that feed it.
What kind of water is Chesapeake Bay?
The Chesapeake Bay is an estuary—a partially enclosed body of water where fresh water from rivers and streams mixes with salt water from the ocean. About half of the water in the Bay comes from salt water from the Atlantic Ocean. The other half drains into the Bay from its enormous 64,000-square-mile watershed.
What impact do humans have on watersheds?
Building dams and rerouting rivers are two examples of ways humans directly impact water in watersheds. Humans also use water as a resource, drawing from watersheds for our drinking water. This does not have to be a negative impact, as water usage can be monitored so that it is sustainable.
Why do they call it the watershed?
But, the word was originally a geographical term describing the area from which water sources drain into a single river or a ridge, like that formed by a chain of mountains, which sends water to two different rivers on either side. From that, watershed came to mean a turning point or dividing line in life.
How does a watershed help a community?
The Importance of Watersheds
A functioning watershed slows, cleans, filters and stores water by allowing water to absorb into the ground. This process improves water quality, reduces risk of flooding, reduces risk for invasive species to establish and increases resilience within a changing climate.
Who benefits from the Chesapeake Bay?
In 2009 (before the Blueprint) the lands and waters of the Chesapeake Bay Region provided economic benefits totaling $107.2 billion annually. These benefits include air and water filtering, agricultural and seafood production, enhancement of property values, and protection from floods and hurricanes.
Is the Chesapeake Bay watershed healthy?
Researchers from the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (UMCES) note that the Chesapeake Bay showed moderate health in 2020, improving from a C- in 2019 to a C, while the watershed encompassing the Bay remains in good health, earning a B-, the same score as last year.