The Murderkill River is a river

River

A river is a natural watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, a lake, a sea, or another river. In a few cases, a river simply flows into the ground or dries up completely before reaching another body of water. Small rivers may also be called by several other names, including...

 flowing to Delaware Bay

Delaware Bay

Delaware Bay is a major estuary outlet of the Delaware River on the Northeast seaboard of the United States whose fresh water mixes for many miles with the waters of the Atlantic Ocean. It is in area. The bay is bordered by the State of New Jersey and the State of Delaware...

 in central Delaware

Delaware

Delaware is a U.S. state located on the Atlantic Coast in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It is bordered to the south and west by Maryland, and to the north by Pennsylvania...

 in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. It is approximately 21.7 miles (34.9 km) long and drains an area of 106 square miles (274.5 km²) on the Atlantic Coastal Plain

Atlantic Coastal Plain

The Atlantic coastal plain has both low elevation and low relief, but it is also a relatively flat landform extending from the New York Bight southward to a Georgia/Florida section of the Eastern Continental Divide, which demarcates the plain from the ACF River Basin in the Gulf Coastal Plain to...

.

The Murderkill flows for its entire length in southern Kent County

Kent County, Delaware

Kent County is a county located in the central part of the U.S. state of Delaware. It is coextensive with the Dover, Delaware, Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of 2010 the population was 162,310, a 28.1% increase over the previous decade. The county seat is Dover, the state capital...

. It rises just west of Felton

Felton, Delaware

Felton is a town in Kent County, Delaware, United States. It is part of the Dover, Delaware Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 1,298 at the 2010 census.-Geography:Felton is located at ....

 and flows generally east-northeastwardly, through Killen Pond (site of Killens Pond State Park

Killens Pond State Park

Killens Pond State Park is a Delaware state park located south of the town of Felton in Kent County, Delaware in the United States. The park surrounds a pond known as Killens Pond located along the Murderkill River. Amenities available include boating, fishing, hiking, playgrounds, and picnic areas...

) and Coursey Pond, and past Frederica

Frederica, Delaware

Frederica is a town in Kent County, Delaware, United States. It is part of the Dover, Delaware Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 774 at the 2010 census...

 to Bowers

Bowers, Delaware

Bowers is a town in Kent County, Delaware, United States. It is part of the Dover, Delaware Metropolitan Statistical Area. According to the 2010 Census, the population of the town is 335.-Geography:Bowers is located at ....

, where it enters Delaware Bay about 0.5 miles (1 km) south of the mouth of the St. Jones River

St. Jones River

The St. Jones River is a river flowing to Delaware Bay in central Delaware in the United States. It is long and drains an area of on the Atlantic Coastal Plain. The river is believed to have been named either for Robert Jones, an early European property owner in the region, or for "St. Jone",...

. The Murderkill River is tidally

Tide

Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by the combined effects of the gravitational forces exerted by the moon and the sun and the rotation of the Earth....

 influenced from its mouth upstream to just past Frederica, and is considered by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to be navigable

Navigability

A body of water, such as a river, canal or lake, is navigable if it is deep, wide and slow enough for a vessel to pass. Preferably there are few obstructions such as rocks or trees to avoid. Bridges must have sufficient clearance. High water speed may make a channel unnavigable. Waters may be...

 for the lower 10 miles (16 km) of its course.

According to 2002 data from the United States Environmental Protection Agency

United States Environmental Protection Agency

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is an agency of the federal government of the United States charged with protecting human health and the environment, by writing and enforcing regulations based on laws passed by Congress...

, 55% of the area of the Murderkill River's watershed

Drainage basin

A drainage basin is an extent or an area of land where surface water from rain and melting snow or ice converges to a single point, usually the exit of the basin, where the waters join another waterbody, such as a river, lake, reservoir, estuary, wetland, sea, or ocean...

 is occupied by agricultural

Agriculture

Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...

 uses; 17% is forest

Forest

A forest, also referred to as a wood or the woods, is an area with a high density of trees. As with cities, depending where you are in the world, what is considered a forest may vary significantly in size and have various classification according to how and what of the forest is composed...

ed; 14% is urban

Urban area

An urban area is characterized by higher population density and vast human features in comparison to areas surrounding it. Urban areas may be cities, towns or conurbations, but the term is not commonly extended to rural settlements such as villages and hamlets.Urban areas are created and further...

; 9% is wetland

Wetland

A wetland is an area of land whose soil is saturated with water either permanently or seasonally. Wetlands are categorised by their characteristic vegetation, which is adapted to these unique soil conditions....

; and 2% is water.

The river has suffered a persistent pollution

Pollution

Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into a natural environment that causes instability, disorder, harm or discomfort to the ecosystem i.e. physical systems or living organisms. Pollution can take the form of chemical substances or energy, such as noise, heat or light...

 from eutrophication

Eutrophication

Eutrophication or more precisely hypertrophication, is the movement of a body of water′s trophic status in the direction of increasing plant biomass, by the addition of artificial or natural substances, such as nitrates and phosphates, through fertilizers or sewage, to an aquatic system...

 and organic waste in agricultural

Agriculture

Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...

 runoff. Its estuary

Estuary

An estuary is a partly enclosed coastal body of water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea....

 is considered to have abnormally low rates of dissolved oxygen

Oxygen

Oxygen is the element with atomic number 8 and represented by the symbol O. Its name derives from the Greek roots ὀξύς and -γενής , because at the time of naming, it was mistakenly thought that all acids required oxygen in their composition...

.

Origin of name

A tradition is preserved about the naming of the Murderkill River:

"...remembering how they had been served at the Whore-Kill, they went some ten or twelve miles higher, where they landed again and traded with the Indians, trusting the Indians to come onto their stores ashore, and likewise aboard their sloop drinking and debauching with the Indians until they were at last barbarously murdered, and so that place was christened with their blood and to this day is called the Murderer-Kill, that is, Murderers Creek".

Variant names

According to the Geographic Names Information System

Geographic Names Information System

The Geographic Names Information System is a database that contains name and locative information about more than two million physical and cultural features located throughout the United States of America and its territories. It is a type of gazetteer...

, the Murderkill River has also been known historically as:

• Mordare Kijhlen
• Mother Creek
• Mother Kill
  Kill (body of water)
  As a body of water, a kill is a creek. The word comes from the Middle Dutch kille, meaning "riverbed" or "water channel." The modern Dutch term is kil....
  
  
• Motherkill
• Motherkiln Creek
• Mothers Creek
• Murder Kill Creek
• Murther Creek
• Murtherkill