Shellpot Creek is a

tributary A tributary, or affluent, is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or main stem (or parent) river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries and the main stem river drain the surrounding drainage ...

of the

Delaware River The Delaware River is a major river in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. From the meeting of its branches in Hancock (village), New York, Hancock, New York, the river flows for along the borders of N ...

in northeast

New Castle County, Delaware New Castle County is the northernmost of the three counties of the U.S. state of Delaware (New Castle, Kent, and Sussex). As of the 2020 census, the population was 570,719, making it the most populous county in Delaware, with nearly 60% of the ...

. The stream rises between Grubb Road and Shipley Road, south of Naaman's Road at in

Brandywine Hundred Brandywine Hundred (also known as North Wilmington) is an unincorporated subdivision of New Castle County, Delaware. It is located to the north and northeast of the city of Wilmington. Hundreds were once used as a basis for representation in th ...

and flows southeast for about six miles before discharging into the Delaware River at near Edgemoor. Prior to 1938, the stream drained into the Brandywine Creek, but was subsequently redirected to the Delaware River. The watershed has a drainage area of nearly 15 square miles, and is the most suburbanized drainage area in the state-designated "

Piedmont it, Piemontese , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

Basin" (which consists of the watersheds of the

Christina River The Christina River is a tributary of the Delaware River, approximately 35 miles (56 km) long, in northern Delaware in the United States, also flowing through small areas of southeastern Pennsylvania and northeastern Maryland. Near i ...

, Brandywine Creek,

Red Clay Creek Red Clay Creek is a tributary of White Clay Creek, running through southeastern Pennsylvania and northern Delaware in the United States. As of 2000, portions of the creek are under wildlife habitat protection. Course The East and West branche ...

White Clay Creek White Clay Creek is an U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed April 1, 2011 tributary of the Christina River in southern Pennsylvania and northern Delaware in the United States. ...

Naamans Creek Naamans Creek (spelled Naaman Creek on federal maps) is a tributary of the Delaware River in northeast New Castle County, Delaware and southeast Delaware County, Pennsylvania. The stream rises near the intersection of Foulk Road and Naamans Cree ...

, and Shellpot Creek). New Castle County, the

Calpine Calpine Corporation is the largest generator of electricity from natural gas and geothermal resources in the United States, with operations in competitive power markets. A Fortune 500 company based in Houston, Texas, the company is owned by an ...

Edge Moor Power Plant, the former

Chemours Chemours (, ) is an American chemical company that was founded in July 2015 as a spin-off from DuPont. It has its corporate headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, United States. History In October 2013, DuPont announced that it was planning to ...

Edge Moor plant,

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...

, and the City of Wilmington all discharge storm-water into Shellpot Creek. During

Tropical Storm Allison (1989) Tropical Storm Allison was a tropical cyclone that produced severe flooding in the southern United States. The second tropical cyclone and the first named storm of the 1989 Atlantic hurricane season, Allison formed on June 24 in the northwestern ...

, the creek flooded to record levels, with the flow rising from 1,300 gallons per minute to 3.6 millions of gallons per minute (or more than 8,000 cubic feet per second). The name is likely derived from the Swedish ''Sköllpadde Fallet'' (meaning "Turtle Falls"), and has been historically known as "Schillpades", "Skilpot", and "Shilpot".

References

Rivers of Delaware Tributaries of the Delaware River Rivers of New Castle County, Delaware {{Delaware-river-stub

See also

References