Appoquinimink River


The Appoquinimink River is a river flowing to Delaware Bay in northern Delaware in the United States. The river is long and drains an area of on the Atlantic Coastal Plain.
The Appoquinimink flows for its entire length in southern New Castle County. It rises approximately west of Townsend and flows generally eastwardly, south of Middletown and past Odessa, to its mouth at the northern end of Delaware Bay, approximately east of Odessa. In its upper course the river passes through two man-made lakes, Wiggins Mill Pond and Noxontown Lake; the river is tidal to the dam at Noxontown Lake, and salinity from Delaware Bay typically affects the lowermost of the river. The lower of the river are considered to be navigable by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
It collects three named tributaries along its course: From the north, Deep Creek, long ; and Drawyers Creek, long; and from the south, Hangmans Run.
According to 2002 data from the United States Environmental Protection Agency, 54.9% of the Appoquinimink River watershed is occupied by agricultural uses ; 15.1% is residential; 9.9% is wetland; and 8.8% is forested.
In 2004, a non-profit group, The Appoquinimink River Association, was founded with a mission to protect the water and natural resources in the region surrounding the Appoquinimink River.

Variant names and spellings

The United States Board on Geographic Names issued a decision clarifying the stream's name in 1950. According to the Geographic Names Information System, the Appoquinimink River has also been known historically as: