Bow Creek is a

tributary A tributary, or affluent, is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or main stem (or parent) river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries and the main stem river drain the surrounding drainage ...

Big Wapwallopen Creek Big Wapwallopen Creek (also known as Wapwallopen Creek or Big Wap) is a tributary of the Susquehanna River in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, in the United States. It is approximately long and flows through Bear Creek Township, Fairview Towns ...

Luzerne County, Pennsylvania Luzerne County is a county in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which is land and is water. It is Northeastern Pennsylvania's second-largest county by total area. As of ...

, in the United States. It is approximately long and flows through Fairview Township and Wright Township. The watershed of the creek has an area of . The creek has no named tributaries, but several unnamed ones, such as Bow Creek Tributary A. Bow Creek has been historically nearly devoid of life, but is now considered to be

Class A Wild Trout Waters Class A Wild Trout Waters are the highest biomass class given to streams in Pennsylvania by the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission. They are considered to contain the highest-quality naturally reproducing trout populations in Pennsylvania. Th ...

. There is a bridge carrying Pennsylvania Route 309 across the creek. Wisconsinan Till, alluvium, and bedrock consisting of sandstone, shale, conglomerate, and coal occur in the watershed. Several

volatile organic compounds Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are organic compounds that have a high vapour pressure at room temperature Colloquially, "room temperature" is a range of air temperatures that most people prefer for indoor settings. It feels comfortable to a ...

have been detected in small amounts in surface water in the watershed. The creek occasionally floods, but such flooding typically causes little damage.

Course

Bow Creek begins on Arbutus Peak in Fairview Township. It flows south for several tenths of a mile until reaching the community of Glen Summit, where it turns west and crosses

Pennsylvania Route 437 Pennsylvania Route 437 (PA 437) is an state highway located in Luzerne County in Pennsylvania. The southern terminus is at PA 940 in White Haven. The northern terminus is at PA 309 in the Fairview Township community of Mountain Top. PA 437 ...

. The creek then receives two unnamed tributaries from the

left Left may refer to: Music * ''Left'' (Hope of the States album), 2006 * ''Left'' (Monkey House album), 2016 * "Left", a song by Nickelback from the album ''Curb'', 1996 Direction * Left (direction), the relative direction opposite of right * L ...

before briefly turning north and then turning back south again and continuing west-northwest. After several tenths of a mile, it enters Rice Township, receives an unnamed tributary from the

right Rights are law, legal, social, or ethics, ethical principles of Liberty, freedom or entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people according to some legal system, social convent ...

, and crosses

Pennsylvania Route 309 Pennsylvania Route 309 (PA 309) is a state highway that runs for 134 miles (216 km) through eastern Pennsylvania. The route runs from an interchange between Pennsylvania Route 611, PA 611 and Cheltenham Avenue on the border of Philadelphia an ...

before turning southwest for nearly a mile until it reaches its confluence with Big Wapwallopen Creek on the border between Wright Township and Rice Township. Bow Creek joins Big Wapwallopen Creek upstream of its mouth.

Tributaries

Bow Creek has no named tributaries. However, it does have several unnamed tributaries. One of these is known as Bow Creek Tributary A. The watershed of this tributary has an area of .

Hydrology

The concentration of

alkalinity Alkalinity (from ar, القلوي, al-qaly, lit=ashes of the saltwort) is the capacity of water to resist acidification. It should not be confused with basicity, which is an absolute measurement on the pH scale. Alkalinity is the strength of ...

in the waters of Bow Creek is 10 milligrams per liter. Three

volatile organic compound Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are organic compounds that have a high vapour pressure at room temperature. High vapor pressure correlates with a low boiling point, which relates to the number of the sample's molecules in the surrounding air, a ...

s have been detected in surface water in the watershed of Bow Creek:

1,1-Dichloroethene 1,1-Dichloroethene, commonly called 1,1-dichloroethylene or vinylidene chloride or 1,1-DCE, is an organochloride with the molecular formula CHCl. It is a colorless liquid with a sharp odor. Like most chlorocarbons, it is poorly soluble in water, ...

1,2-Dichloroethene 1,2-Dichloroethene, commonly called 1,2-dichloroethylene or 1,2-DCE, is the name for a pair of organochlorine compounds with the molecular formula CHCl. They are both colorless liquids with a sweet odor. It can exist as either of two geometric ...

, and

trichloroethene The chemical compound trichloroethylene is a halocarbon commonly used as an industrial solvent. It is a clear, colourless non-flammable liquid with a chloroform-like sweet smell. It should not be confused with the similar 1,1,1-trichloroethane, ...

. The maximum observed concentrations of these compounds were 60 nanograms per liter, 3.6 micrograms per liter, and 24 micrograms per liter, respectively. Wastewater was discharged into the creek by the RCA in the 1970s. The peak annual discharge of Bow Creek at its mouth has a 10 percent chance of reaching 550 cubic feet per second and a 2 percent chance of reaching 920 cubic feet per second. It has a 1 percent chance of reaching 1100 cubic feet per second and a 0.2 percent chance of reaching 1600 cubic feet per second. At the mouth of Bow Creek Tributary A, the peak annual discharge of Bow Creek has a 10 percent chance of reaching 352 cubic feet per second. It has a 2 percent chance of reaching 560 cubic feet per second, a 1 percent chance of reaching 675 cubic feet per second, and a 0.2 percent chance of reaching 1000 cubic feet per second. At a location approximately upstream of Black Walnut Drive, the peak annual discharge of Bow Creek has a 10 percent chance of reaching 250 cubic feet per second. It has a 2 percent chance of reaching 430 cubic feet per second and 1 percent chance of reaching 520 cubic feet per second. The chance of the creek's discharge peaking at 770 cubic feet per second in any given year is 0.2 percent. Part of Bow Creek was dry during the summer and early autumn of 2007.

Geography and geology

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 Bow Creek is above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical datuma standardised g ...

. The elevation near the stream's

source Source may refer to: Research * Historical document * Historical source * Source (intelligence) or sub source, typically a confidential provider of non open-source intelligence * Source (journalism), a person, publication, publishing institute o ...

is between above sea level. The headwaters of Bow Creek are on a mountain known as Arbutus Peak. The upper reaches of Bow Creek are mostly on a glacial or resedimented

till image:Geschiebemergel.JPG, Closeup of glacial till. Note that the larger grains (pebbles and gravel) in the till are completely surrounded by the matrix of finer material (silt and sand), and this characteristic, known as ''matrix support'', is d ...

known as the Wisconsinan Till. However, there are some areas containing

bedrock In geology, bedrock is solid Rock (geology), rock that lies under loose material (regolith) within the crust (geology), crust of Earth or another terrestrial planet. Definition Bedrock is the solid rock that underlies looser surface mater ...

consisting of

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...

shale Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock formed from mud that is a mix of flakes of clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4) and tiny fragments (silt-sized particles) of other minerals, especial ...

, conglomerate, and

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when dea ...

. The same is true in the lower reaches of the watershed, but there are also areas of

alluvium Alluvium (from Latin ''alluvius'', from ''alluere'' 'to wash against') is loose clay, silt, sand, or gravel that has been deposited by running water in a stream bed, on a floodplain, in an alluvial fan or beach, or in similar settings. Alluv ...

along the creek near its mouth.

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 Bow Creek has an area of . The stream's mouth is in the

United States Geological Survey The United States Geological Survey (USGS), formerly simply known as the Geological Survey, is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, ...

quadrangle of Wilkes-Barre West. However, its source is in the quadrangle of Wilkes-Barre East. The entire length of Bow Creek is in

private land Private or privates may refer to: Music * "In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation'' * Private (band), a Denmark-based band * "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorded ...

. The creek and its unnamed tributary sometimes

flood A flood is an overflow of water ( or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are an area of study of the discipline hydrol ...

, but since their

floodplain A floodplain or flood plain or bottomlands is an area of land adjacent to a river which stretches from the banks of its channel to the base of the enclosing valley walls, and which experiences flooding during periods of high discharge.Goudi ...

s are in relatively undeveloped areas, such floods typically cause little damage. A

wetland A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The ...

known as the Bow Creek Fen is located in the creek's watershed.

History

Bow Creek was entered into the

Geographic Names Information System The Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) is a database of name and locative information about more than two million physical and cultural features throughout the United States and its territories, Antarctica, and the associated states of ...

on August 2, 1979. Its identifier in the Geographic Names Information System is 1170043. In the early 1900s, the Luzerne County commissioners received approval to construct a bridge across Bow Creek in Wright Township. A

concrete Concrete is a composite material composed of fine and coarse aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement (cement paste) that hardens (cures) over time. Concrete is the second-most-used substance in the world after water, and is the most wi ...

tee beam A T-beam (or tee beam), used in construction, is a load-bearing structure of reinforced concrete, wood or metal, with a -shaped cross section. The top of the -shaped cross section serves as a flange or compression member in resisting compressiv ...

bridge A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually somethi ...

carrying Pennsylvania Route 309 was constructed over Bow Creek in 1929. It is long and is located in Wright Township. In 2013, the bridge received a weight restriction of 28 tons (35 tons for combination loads). In the 1970s, the Pennsylvania Department of Economic Resources had a significant amount of interest in Bow Creek. In addition to periodic stream surveys, they performed

electrofishing Electrofishing is a fishing technique that uses direct current electricity flowing between a submerged cathode and anode. This affects the movements of nearby fish so that they swim toward the anode, where they can be caught or stunned.

surveys and determined

diversity index A diversity index is a quantitative measure that reflects how many different types (such as species) there are in a dataset (a community), and that can simultaneously take into account the phylogenetic relations among the individuals distributed a ...

values for

benthos Benthos (), also known as benthon, is the community of organisms that live on, in, or near the bottom of a sea, river, lake, or stream, also known as the benthic zone. A request was made in 2012 to redesignate Bow Creek and several dozen other streams as High Quality Coldwater Fisheries due to the fact that they already met the requirements for Class A Wild Trout Waters status.

Biology

Bow Creek is considered by the

Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission is an independent state agency responsible for the regulation of all fishing and boating in the state of Pennsylvania within the United States of America. Unlike many U.S. states, Pennsylvania has a separ ...

to be Class A Wild Trout Waters for both

brook trout The brook trout (''Salvelinus fontinalis'') is a species of freshwater fish in the char genus ''Salvelinus'' of the salmon family Salmonidae. It is native to Eastern North America in the United States and Canada, but has been introduced elsewhere ...

and

brown trout The brown trout (''Salmo trutta'') is a European species of salmonid fish that has been widely introduced into suitable environments globally. It includes purely freshwater populations, referred to as the riverine ecotype, ''Salmo trutta'' morph ...

from its headwaters to its mouth. A 298-acre tract of land owned by the North Branch Land Trust in Fairview Township contains a section of the creek that is said to be "teeming" with native brook trout. 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 the creek from Pennsylvania Route 309 to its mouth is designated as a Coldwater Fishery and a Migratory Fishery. However, its existing uses are High-Quality Coldwater Fishery and Migratory Fishery. In the early 1970s, Bow Creek was nearly devoid of

aquatic life An aquatic ecosystem is an ecosystem formed by surrounding a body of water, in contrast to land-based terrestrial ecosystems. Aquatic ecosystems contain communities of organisms that are dependent on each other and on their environment. The two ...

and its streambed was covered in large populations of ''

Sphaerotilus ''Sphaerotilus natans'' is an aquatic periphyton organism associated with polluted water. It forms colonies commonly known as "sewage fungus", but later identified as tightly sheathed filamentous bacteria. Morphology Straight or smoothly curve ...

'', a sewage bacterium. However, five years later, it was "a showplace" and a "cold-water trout stream" with substantial

fish Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of li ...

populations. The change was made over a three-year period by two teams, one consisting of state government environmentalists and one consisting of people from the industry.

References

{{authority control Rivers of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania Tributaries of the Susquehanna River Rivers of Pennsylvania