The entire Chesapeake Bay watershed includes portions of six states (New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland, Virginia, and Delaware) and the District of Columbia. The watershed of the entire Chesapeake Bay covers 165,760 km2 (approximately 64,000 mi2 or 41 million acres [3][4]). With an estuary water body area of only 11,600 km2 (4,479 mi2),[5] the land-to-water ratio is about 14:1.[6] Therefore, the rivers flowing into the Chesapeake Bay have a large influence on water quality in the estuary. The rivers flowing into the Chesapeake Bay act as sources of nutrients and sediments from land, which affect the health of the downstream estuary.[7][8] The larger rivers cross the Atlantic seaboard fall line. Over time, many large cities emerged where these rivers cross the fall line as watermills allowed for the production of material goods. Colonial-era logging, farming, and later construction of mill dams have altered streams and trapped mud in much of the Chesapeake Bay watershed.[9][10]
[*] James values are the sums of flows and watershed areas of the James and Appomattox rivers.
[**] York values are the sums of flows and watershed areas of the Mattaponi and Pamunkey tributary rivers.
Other tributary rivers and tidal inlets
In addition to the largest rivers listed above, the following rivers drain directly into the Chesapeake Bay:
^Zhang, Qian; Brady, Damien C.; Boynton, Walter R.; Ball, William P. (2015). "Long-term trends of nutrients and sediment from the nontidal Chesapeake watershed: An assessment of progress by river and season". Journal of the American Water Resources Association. 51 (6): 1534–1555. doi:10.1111/1752-1688.12327. S2CID129432081.
^Merritts, Dorothy; Walter, Robert (2011). "Anthropocene streams and base-level controls from historic dams in the unglaciated mid-Atlantic region, USA". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A. 369 (1938): 976–1009. Bibcode:2011RSPTA.369..976M. doi:10.1098/rsta.2010.0335. PMID21282157. S2CID10390720.
^Zhang, Qian; Brady, Damien C.; Boynton, Walter R.; Ball, William P. (2015). "Long-term trends of nutrients and sediment from the nontidal Chesapeake watershed: An assessment of progress by river and season". Journal of the American Water Resources Association. 51 (6): 1534–1555. doi:10.1111/1752-1688.12327. S2CID129432081.