The tributaries to this 45 mile length of the Delaware River include Hakihokake, Harihokake, Nishisakawick, Lockatong, Wickecheoke, Alexauken, and Swan Creeks in Hunterdon County, and Moores, Fiddlers, and Jacobs Creeks in Mercer County. There are no large population centers here, but smaller towns are Milford Borough, Frenchtown, Sergeantsville, Lambertville and Stockton. Two impoundments are the Swan Creek Reservoirs, East and West. The land use in this area is primarily agricultural and forested, with residential and commercial development scattered throughout. Residential development is increasing in these small watersheds.
Monitoring now is limited to biological assessments.
Prior to 1991 and throughout the latter half of the 1980s, Wickecheoke Creek at Stockton was the only ambient monitoring station on the Delaware River tributaries between the Musconetcong River and the Assunpink Creek. Wickecheoke Creek, based upon its last ambient monitoring assessment had good overall water quality, with conditions degrading to fair in mid-summer. Water quality problems observed were elevated stream temperatures in warm weather periods and excessive levels of total nitrogen. Locatcong and Wickecheoke Creeks are impacted by runoff from crop land and from pasture land. These streams also receive occasional septic tank leachate which is suspected to have contributed to nutrient enrichment and fecal coliform contamination.