The Christina Brandywine River Remediation, Restoration and Resilience (CBR4) effort is a collaboration between partners in the public and private sectors to bring the lower Christina and Brandywine Rivers fully back to life after years of industrial use and recovery. In 2017 the Christina Conservancy began working with DNREC and other partners to assess the needs and possibilities for addressing in-stream contamination and restoring habitat and water quality to make these urban waters fishable and swimmable again.
A Plan for Recovery
Today, a team of experts is working together to develop a plan with the strategies and projects needed to bring these urban rivers fully back to life for people, fish and wildlife. The team working on this CBR4 Plan includes the Christina Conservancy, American Rivers, DNREC, BrightFields, Inc., Partnership for the Delaware Estuary, Sarver Ecological, Anchor QEA and the Delaware Nature Society, working with the South Wilmington Planning Network, Collaborate Northeast and others to get input from local communities and other stakeholders. To learn more about this multi-year project, what it will entail, and how it came about, watch this recording of our introductory webinar or read this basic summary of the CBR4 Plan project.
Will You Join Us? In November 2022 – January 2023 we are seeking input from residents and visitors to Wilmington’s Rivers to help us refine potential projects that have been identified to improve the health of the rivers. Visit the CBR4 Virtual Information Room where you can view concept plans and provide feedback on project opportunities.
Workshops
At the end of January 2023, CBR4 partners are hosting a workshop for key stakeholders to share a series of project opportunities and concept plans for feedback and to seek partners and support for implementing them. These projects were shaped by the outcome from a February 2022 virtual workshop where the Conservancy and CBR4 partners presented maps of baseline conditions, goals and strategies to guide the identification of projects. Organizations, agencies and community groups working in and around the lower Christina and Brandywine Rivers were invited to attend and provide their insights on these goals and strategies. Watch a recording of the workshop here.
In September of 2019, the Conservancy partnered with BrightFields Inc., DNREC, and Anchor QEA to host a workshop sharing the results of mapping and other work to clean up and restore the lower Christina and Brandywine Rivers. A Technical Workshop for the Christina River and Brandywine Creek Sediment Remediation brought together 80 scientists, engineers, and planners to focus on river sediment remediation and river restoration, and to outline net steps for environmental cleanup goals, fundraising and community involvement. Click on the following links for the Workshop Agenda and Workshop Attendees.
Survey of the Bottom of the Lower Christina River
To map and characterize sediments (soils) and help target future cleanup of contaminants like PCBs in the river, the Christina Conservancy funded a survey of the river bottom. This survey used geophysical remote sensing and bottom/sub-bottom sampling to identify bottom substrates (coarse sand, fine sand). Click on this Link to data to access a map like the one above on the NOAA ERMA website. (Once there, open the Bathymetry & Hydrology menu item on the right hand side and a list of Christina River DE survey data options will appear that can be added to the map.)
For more information on CBR4, please also visit https://dnrec.alpha.delaware.gov/cbr4/.