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The Upper Eastern Shore Basin Major water bodies, include the Miles, Chester, Elk, Bohemia, Sassafras, and Northeast Rivers. There are numerous tributary creeks and several large embayments (Eastern Bay, Prospect Bay, Crab Alley Bay). Back Creek forms the western end of the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal. |
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In the Upper Eastern Shore basin, land use is primarily agricultural. Because of the agricultural nature of the Upper Eastern Shore, approximately three quarters of the nitrogen and phosphorus pollutants come from agriculture sources. The remaining contributions come from a combination of non-point and point sources. In this basin, as in the rest of the state, forest and wetlands are a land use that releases few nutrients to rivers and the Bay. Baywide, approximately 33% of nitrogen loads come from atmospheric sources, however, that varies from basin to basin and is included in land based loads. Download the complete Basin Overview to learn more about the Upper Eastern Shore Basin. See the latest Upper Eastern Shore water quality data (charts for water temperature, salinity, water clarity and dissolved oxygen) for the Elk River or the Chester River, or see water quality for other Bay tributaries. For water quality status and long-term trends, see our status and trends maps. Also, please check out the Basin Summary for the Upper Eastern Shore Tributary Basin. |
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The Upper Eastern Shore, along with all tributary basins in the Chesapeake, contribute to and are impacted by nutrient pollution. Nutrient pollution can be divided into two major categories – point sources (pollution that comes from a single, definable location, such as a wastewater treatment plant or industrial discharge) and non-point sources (pollution that cannot be attributed to a clearly identifiable, specific physical location, such as runoff from land and atmospheric deposition). Runoff from different land uses, point sources, and atmospheric deposition are the major sources of nutrients within the Bay watershed.