Water Quality

*Brandywine Creek Water Quality*
Water entering City
*Bacteria:**	108 colonies/100 ml
Dissolved Oxygen†:	11.1 mg/l
Suspended Solids‡:	5 mg/l
Water leaving City
*Bacteria:**	55 colonies/100 ml
Dissolved Oxygen†:	9.7 mg/l
Suspended Solids‡:	19 mg/l
*Christina River Water Quality*
Water entering City
*Bacteria:**	43 colonies/100 ml
Dissolved Oxygen†:	9.2 mg/l
Suspended Solids‡:	13 mg/l
Water leaving City
*Bacteria:**	55 colonies/100 ml
Dissolved Oxygen†:	9.7 mg/l
Suspended Solids‡:	19 mg/l
*Delaware River Water Quality*
Water entering City
*Bacteria:**	34 colonies/100 ml
Dissolved Oxygen†:	6.8 mg/l
Suspended Solids‡:	35 mg/l
Water leaving City
*Bacteria:**	31 colonies/100 ml
Dissolved Oxygen†:	7.2 mg/l
Suspended Solids‡:	43 mg/l

While efforts are made to clean our water, it is important to understand National Water Quality Standards. As a community we can define a level of quality we can all live with in terms of recreation, safety controls and affordability.

The categories (at right) briefly explain how water quality is measured. The data shows no substantive difference between upstream and downstream samples.

*Bacteria (Enterococcus) - A lower number is better. Delaware water standard is 100 colonies/100 ml.

†Dissolved Oxygen - Shallow fast moving water with rapids will always have higher dissolved oxygen, while deep rivers or slow moving or still waters will have less. More dissolved oxygen means healthier aquatic conditions. Higher is better. Delaware standard is 5.5 mg/l. 11 is very good.

‡Suspended Solids - Turbid or cloudy water with soil runoff or debris. This will always be higher during and after a storm. Less suspended solids are more desirable. There is no standard. Higher suspended solids down river in the Delaware are also impacted by small creeks and NJ side runoff.

Last water quality survey - 2000

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