Corsica River
Watershed Characterization


The Town of Centreville is receiving a Federal grant funding to prepare a Watershed Restoration Action Strategy (WRAS) for the Corsica River Watershed. The Town is an incorporated municipality and is the county seat of Queen Anne’s County, Maryland. In the WRAS project, the Town of Centreville is working closely with Queen Anne’s County and other stakeholders to consider local priorities for protection and restoration of water quality and habitat.

The WRAS project area encompasses nearly 25,300 acres including nearly 1,400 acres of open water. The Town of Centreville is located at the head of tide on the Corsica River. The lower, tidal portion of the Corsica River enters the Chester River near Town Point in the oligohaline salinity zone. Depths of the tidal portions of Corsica River range from 1-2 feet in the upper tidal waters to greater than 15 feet near its confluence with the Chester River.

As part of WRAS project, the Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is providing technical assistance, including preparation of a watershed characterization (compilation of available water quality and natural resources information and identification of issues), a stream corridor assessment (uses field data to catalog issues and rate severity) and a synoptic survey (analyzes benthic macroinvertebrates, fish and water samples with focus on nutrients). The Town of Centreville, with Queen Anne’s County and other stakeholders, will use this information to help assess the watershed and to help generate the Watershed Restoration Action Strategy.

Note: (Documents are in PDF format and require Adobe Acrobat Reader which can be downloaded free from http://www.adobe.com)