The economic efficiency of watershed management concerning drinking water supply in the White Clay Creek watershed in Pennsylvania and Delaware

The White Clay Creek watershed in northern Delaware and southeastern Pennsylvania is the drinking water supply to the city of Newark, Delaware. This thesis is an analysis of current and future water quality and land use changes as they relate to the operation of the Curtis Mill Water Treatment Plant that withdraws surface water from the White Clay Creek. The research is based on the interaction of watershed management, water supply operation, and water quality as they pertain to drinking water.;The water quality of the White Clay Creek is currently high, but land use changes known to be detrimental to water quality within the watershed occur at a fast pace. A land use analysis on the Pennsylvania and Delaware sections of the White Clay Creek watershed had found that impervious cover in the watershed increases at a rate of one half percent annually and is currently eleven percent for the area of the watershed that contributes source water to the city of Newark. Land use change is most apparent in the transition from agricultural land to single family residential areas. (Abstract shortened by UMI.).