749 Hopmeadow St.
Simsbury, CT 06070
  860-658-4442

River (and Watershed) Facts:

• A watershed consists of the land area that drains into a water body.
• The Farmington River Watershed is 609 square miles, or 384,000 acres, in size.
• The Farmington River Watershed provides 100% of the drinking water for over 600,000 people in living in Greater Hartford and the Farmington Valley.
• The Farmington River Watershed receives over 35 million gallons per day of treated wastewater from 9 publicly owned sewage treatment plants.
• In 1994 a 14-mile segment of the Farmington River received federal Wild & Scenic designation. This is the only river in Connecticut, and one of only six in New England, with such a designation.
• The Farmington River Watershed is an important Atlantic salmon restoration habitat. Annually over one million juvenile salmon, called salmon fry, are stocked in the watershed.
• Farmington River is 81 miles long from headwaters to mouth.
• There are 409 dams in the Connecticut Portion of the Farmington River Watershed.
• There are no officially designated swimming areas along the Farmington River.
• The Farmington River is the only river to flow in all four cardinal directions in the Northern Hemisphere.
• The Farmington Valley was once wholly underwater in an area called Lake Hitchcock.
• The Watershed is host to every kind of channel type.
• Tariffville Gorge is one of the rapids in New England that can be run year-round and has hosted National and Olympic trials, New England Championship competitions, and National Canoe Poling competitions.
• The Farmington River is host to 9 species of fresh water mussels and the Southern New England stronghold of dwarf wedge mussel.

Who provides the water you drink? View a list of Watershed Water Companies.