Beaver Run is a tributary of Buffalo Creek in

Union County, Pennsylvania Union County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 42,681. Its county seat is Lewisburg. The county was created on March 22, 1813, from part of Northumberland County. Its name is an allusio ...

, in the United States. It is approximately long and flows through Buffalo Township. The watershed of the stream has an area of . It is designated as an impaired stream due to siltation from agricultural activity. A significant majority of the stream's watershed is on agricultural land and only a tiny minority is on forested land. Beaver Run was named sometime before 1769. A bridge was constructed over the stream in Vicksburg in 1940. The watershed of Beaver Run is designated as a coldwater fishery and a migratory fishery. The stream has a low level of diversity amongst pollution-sensitive macroinvertebrates. However, its pathogen load is several quadrillion organisms per month.

Course

Beaver Run looking downstream from Pennsylvania Route 192

Beaver Run begins near the intersection of Pheasant Ridge Road and Dreisbach Church Road in Buffalo Township. It flows north-northeast for a short distance before turning north-northwest for a few tenths of a mile. The stream then turns west-northwest for several tenths of a mile before turning west and entering

Vicksburg Vicksburg most commonly refers to: * Vicksburg, Mississippi, a city in western Mississippi, United States * The Vicksburg Campaign, an American Civil War campaign * The Siege of Vicksburg, an American Civil War battle Vicksburg is also the name of ...

. Here, it turns north-northwest again and crosses Pennsylvania Route 45 before turning northeast and leaving Vicksburg. The stream then turns north for more than a mile and flows through a shallow valley before crossing

Pennsylvania Route 192 Pennsylvania Route 192 (PA 192) is a state highway located in central Pennsylvania. The western terminus of the route is at PA 144 in Centre Hall. The eastern terminus is at U.S. Route 15 (US 15) in Lewisburg. Route description PA 192 begins at ...

and reaching its confluence with Buffalo Creek. Beaver Run joins Buffalo Creek upstream of its mouth.

Tributaries

Beaver Run has no named tributaries. However, it does have a number of unnamed tributaries. Their stream codes are 18995, 18996, 18997, and 64983. All are designated as impaired by siltation due to agriculture.

Hydrology

Beaver Run is as degraded as some impaired tributaries of Buffalo Creek. However, Beaver Run was not designated by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection as an impaired waterbody until 2008. A total of of the stream and its tributaries are impaired. Despite this, it is not a major contributor of degradation to the

main stem In hydrology, a mainstem (or trunk) is "the primary downstream segment of a river, as contrasted to its tributaries". Water enters the mainstem from the river's drainage basin, the land area through which the mainstem and its tributaries flow.. A ...

of Buffalo Creek, due to its low

discharge Discharge may refer to Expel or let go * Discharge, the act of firing a gun * Discharge, or termination of employment, the end of an employee's duration with an employer * Military discharge, the release of a member of the armed forces from serv ...

. The cause of the impairment is siltation and the source is agriculture. The total maximum daily load date is 2021. The load of sediment in Beaver Run in 2000 was , while in 2008, the load was . This equates to nearly , the highest of any major tributary of Buffalo Creek. However, in the future, it could decrease by as much as 67.28 percent, to per year. In 2000, row crops and

streambank In geography, a bank is the land alongside a body of water. Different structures are referred to as ''banks'' in different fields of geography, as follows. In limnology (the study of inland waters), a stream bank or river bank is the terrai ...

erosion were the largest sources of sediment in the stream, comprising of the annual load, respectively. Other sources included hay/pastures (), low-density urban land (),

unpaved road Unpaved roads may refer to: * Dirt roads * Gravel roads A gravel road is a type of unpaved road surfaced with gravel that has been brought to the site from a quarry or stream bed. They are common in less-developed nations, and also in the ru ...

s (), and miscellaneous sources (). Beaver Run has high levels of nitrogen. In 2000, the nitrogen load was and in 2008, it was . This equates to more than , again the highest of any major tributary of Buffalo Creek. However, in the future, the nitrogen load could decrease by up to 39.44 percent, to . In 2000, of nitrogen came from groundwater and subsurface water, came from row crops, and came from hay and pastures. Another came from low-density urban land, while came from septic systems, came from unpaved roads, and came from streambank erosion. Another came from other sources. The phosphorus load in Beaver Run was in 2000 and in 2008. This equates to about , the highest of any major tributary to Buffalo Creek. The phosphorus load could potentially be reduced by as much as 53.25 percent, to . In 2000, of phosphorus came from row crops. Other sources included groundwater and subsurface water (), hay and pastures (), and low-density urban land (). came from septic systems and streambank erosion, while came from unpaved roads and came from miscellaneous sources.

Geography, geology, and climate

The elevation near the

mouth In animal anatomy, the mouth, also known as the oral cavity, or in Latin cavum oris, is the opening through which many animals take in food and issue vocal sounds. It is also the cavity lying at the upper end of the alimentary canal, bounded on ...

of Beaver Run is above sea level. The elevation of the creek's source is between above sea level. The stream's watershed is entirely within the

Appalachian Mountain The Appalachian Mountains, often called the Appalachians, (french: Appalaches), are a system of mountains in eastern to northeastern North America. The Appalachians first formed roughly 480 million years ago during the Ordovician Period. They ...

section of the

ridge and valley The Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians, also called the Ridge and Valley Province or the Valley and Ridge Appalachians, are a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian division and are also a belt within the Appalachian Mountains extending ...

physiographic province. There are no fences along any part of Beaver Run or any of its tributaries. Additionally, there is only of stabilization along streams in its watershed. However, of fencing and of stabilization could potentially be installed. The main

rock formation A rock formation is an isolated, scenic, or spectacular surface rock outcrop. Rock formations are usually the result of weathering and erosion sculpting the existing rock. The term ''rock formation'' can also refer to specific sediment ...

s in the watershed of Beaver Run include the

Wills Creek Formation Wills Creek Formation is a mapped Silurian bedrock unit in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia. Description The Wills Creek is defined as a moderately well bedded greenish-gray shale containing local limestone and sandstone zon ...

and the Keyser and Tonoloway Formation. Each formation occupies 50 percent of the watershed. The former rock formation is dominant in the lower reaches, while the latter one is dominant in the upper reaches. The most common soil type in the watershed of Beaver Run is the Edom-Millheim-Calvin soil, which occupies 70 percent of the watershed. The Hagerstown-Duffield-Clarksburg soil occupies 25 percent of the watershed and the Chenango-Pope-Holly soil occupies 5 percent. The Chenango-Pope-Holly soil occurs mainly in the watershed's lower reaches, while the Edom-Millheim-Calvin soil occurs in the middle reaches and the Hagerstown-Duffield-Clarksburg soil occurs in the upper reaches. The average annual rate of precipitation in the watershed of Beaver Run is . The average rate of runoff in the watershed is per year.

Watershed

The

watershed Watershed is a hydrological term, which has been adopted in other fields in a more or less figurative sense. It may refer to: Hydrology * Drainage divide, the line that separates neighbouring drainage basins * Drainage basin, called a "watershe ...

of Beaver Run has an area of . The stream is entirely within the United States Geological Survey quadrangle of Lewisburg. It is one of the major tributaries of Buffalo Creek. The watershed makes up approximately 3 percent of the watershed of Buffalo Creek. There are of streams in the watershed of Beaver Run. Of these are in agricultural land. A total of 6 percent of the watershed of Beaver Run is on forested land. Another 83 percent of the watershed is on

agricultural Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating Plant, plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of Sedentism, sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of Domestication, domesticated species created food ...

land, while 7 percent is on impervious surfaces. There is virtually no forested land in the watershed. The total amount of impervious land in the watershed could potentially rise to 41 percent in the future. A total of of land in the watershed is devoted to row crops. Another are devoted to hay and pastures. The watershed contains of low-intensity development, of transitional land, and of wetlands. A total of of land in the watershed of Beaver Run is on slopes of greater than 3 percent. There are of unpaved roads in the watershed and they occupy an area of .

History and etymology

Beaver Run was entered into the Geographic Names Information System on August 2, 1979. Its identifier in the Geographic Names Information System is 1169027. The stream received its name sometime before 1769. It is named after a large beaver dam that was located near its mouth. A concrete tee beam bridge carrying Pennsylvania Route 45 was constructed across Beaver Run in 1940. It is long and is located in Vicksburg. In the original assessment of Beaver Run by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, the stream was not found to be impaired. However, in September 2006, the Buffalo Creek Watershed Association petitioned the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection to classify the stream as impaired, as chemical and biological signs indicated a lower level of water quality than the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection's assessments had originally indicated. The stream was listed as impaired in 2008. In a 2008 report, the watershed of Beaver Run was ranked second amongst sub-watersheds in the Buffalo Creek drainage basin for restoration priority.

Biology

The drainage basin of Beaver Run is designated as a coldwater fishery and a migratory fishery. Beaver Run has a low level of biodiversity among pollution-sensitive

macroinvertebrate Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chordate s ...

s. Only of streams in the watershed of Beaver Run have a vegetated riparian buffer. However, this could potentially increase to . The pathogen load of Beaver Run is on the order of 7.887 × 10¹⁵ organisms per month. Urban land and farm animals are the largest source of pathogens, at 6.497 × 10¹⁵ and 1.389 × 10¹⁵ organisms per month, respectively. The remaining sources are orders of magnitude smaller. They include septic systems (1.224 × 10¹² organisms per month) and wildlife (4.672 × 10¹⁰ organisms per month).

References

{{authority control Rivers of Union County, Pennsylvania Tributaries of Buffalo Creek (West Branch Susquehanna River) Rivers of Pennsylvania