An Essay On Chesapeake Bay Watersheds

925 Words2 Pages

A watershed is an area of land that contributes water to a river, lake, wetland, bay or any other body of water, small or large. Watersheds are also known as basins or drainage basins, as they do “drain” off into a larger body of water. There are watersheds all around us. Small streams and creeks are also considered watersheds; so even if you don’t know it, you too live in a watershed. Watersheds consist of all surface water, as well as all ground and underground water. There are watersheds of many different sizes. We Virginia residents live in one of the largest watersheds in the world. The Chesapeake Bay watershed is said to be larger than 64,000 square miles and embody six different states. The six states to which the Chesapeake Bay watershed surrounds are as follows: New York, Delaware, Maryland, West Virginia, the District of Columbia, and of course, Virginia. The Chesapeake Bay watershed houses more than 17 million people in total. Another fact—a total of 150 creeks, streams, and rivers drain into the Chesapeake Bay River. The Susquehanna, York, Rappahannock, Potomac,and James rivers are the five largest …show more content…

The management plan is also aiming to implement an education/outreach, and monitoring program to take place throughout the watershed. This plan will be a guide to improving our water resources throughout the state and reducing further pollution in the future”.
“Marine grasses are affected by pollutants running to the Susquehanna River, which affect migrating waterfowl. Powerboats are polluting the bay and affecting wildlife there” (National, pp 8). Norfolk is one of the busiest ports in the country, all of the ships passing through there on a daily basis add to the pollution of the watersheds. When they dump their fuel and waste into the ocean, this is furthering the damage to our water

More about An Essay On Chesapeake Bay Watersheds

Open Document