The Delaware Estuary Watershed

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map of the Delaware Estuary watershedSummary of “Economic Value of the Delaware Estuary Watershed”

What do Boeing, Sunoco, Campbell’s Soup, DuPont, Wawa, Starbucks, Iron Hill Brewery, the Philadelphia Eagles, Salem Nuclear Power Plant, and the United States Navy have in common? They all depend on the waters of the Delaware Estuary to sustain their business.

The natural resources of the Delaware Estuary watershed provide tremendous economic value to our region. This report examines that value in three distinct ways:

  • Economic value directly related to the Delaware Estuary’s water resources and habitats
    Using economic activity as a measure of value, the Delaware Estuary contributes over $10 billion in annual economic activity from recreation, water quality and supply, hunting and fishing, forests, agriculture and parks.
  • Value of the goods and services provided by the Delaware Estuary’s ecosystems
    Using ecosystem goods and services as a measure of value, the ecosystems of the Delaware Estuary (such as wetlands, forests, farms, and water) provide $12 billion annually in goods and services in 2010 dollars, with a net present value of $392 billion calculated over a 100-year period.
  • Employment related to the Delaware Estuary’s water resources and habitats
    Using employment as a measure of value, the Delaware Estuary directly and indirectly supports over 500,000 jobs with over $10 billion in wages annually. This does not include the thousands or even millions of jobs in companies and industries that rely on waters of the Delaware Estuary for their industrial and commercial processes.

Note that the three economic categories above cannot be summed because there is a measure of overlap between certain values that could result in double counting. For example, the ecosystem values of forests for water-quality benefits are at least partially captured in the economic value of water supply. However, the above estimates clearly indicate the Delaware Estuary is an economic engine that contributes over $10 billion annually to our region’s economy.

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