Chesapeake Bay Watershed

The Chesapeake Bay Watershed covers several states. The bay is our nations largest and most productive estuary. The Watershed covers the majority of Pennsylvania. In Pennsylvania, water east of the eastern continental divide flows into the Chesapeake Bay watershed. The Chesapeake Bay foundation and project are both working to clean up the watershed to protect the fish and other organisms that live in the watershed.

Chesapeake Bay Facts

The Chesapeake Bay Basin is made up of thousands of miles of rivers and streams that supply freshwater to the Chesapeake.

- The Chesapeake Bay Basin stretches from upstate New York to the Tidewater Region of Virginia. The drainage area covers 64,000 square miles or 41,000,000 acres.
- Pennsylvania makes up over one-third of the entire Chesapeake Bay Basin, more than any other state.
- About half of Pennsylvania (52%) lies within the basin.
- Within Pennsylvania's portion of the basin, the Susquehanna River drains 92% of the watershed and the Potomac drains another 7%. The remaining 1% of the watershed drains from Elk Creek and Northeast River in Chester County and Gunpowder River in York County.
- Three million people, or about one quarter of the entire Chesapeake Bay Basin population, lives in Pennsylvania