Many people are unfamiliar with the term “watershed” – but whether we know the word or not, each one of us lives in a watershed! So what is a watershed? A watershed is an area of land in which all precipitation (like rain or snow) drains to a specific river. There are 18 large watersheds in the United States. Those watersheds are further divided into incrasingly smaller watersheds as you focus on more specific areas. (For example, you might live within the Pleasant Run Watershed, inside the Upper White River Watershed, inside the Wabash Watershed, which is inside the Ohio River Watershed/Watershed 05 – one of the 18 watersheds of the U.S.) Watersheds are identified by something called a Hydrologic Unit Code, or HUC number, which is between 2 and 12 digits. The larger watershed are assigned 2 digits (from 01 through 18) and the very smallest subwatersheds have 12 digits that identify them within the larger watersheds. This photo from the USGS shows how HUC numbers are generated:
Learning what watershed you live in is a great way to understand your ecosystem. It can also tell you what conservation efforts might be most helpful and important to focus on in your area. Many tools – developed by the National Resources Defense Council, Environmental Protection Agency, and our own Indiana Department of Environmental Management – exist to help you find your watershed address and learn about what affects the water near you.
If you’d like to know what watershed you live in, you can navigate to the Indiana HUC Finder on IDEM’s website and enter your address to learn your watershed name and HUC code. Then, if you navigate to the How’s My Waterway tool on the EPA website and enter your address, you can get all kinds of information about water in your watershed – how safe it is to swim and fish, how safe your drinking water is, whether any specific contamination issues have been identified, and what work is being done to protect and restore your watershed. We encourage you to know your watershed address and get informed on the health of your water!
