Connoquenessing Creek
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Connoquenessing 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 ...
of the Beaver River, approximately 50 mi (80 km) long, in
Western Pennsylvania Western Pennsylvania is a region in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, covering the western third of the state. Pittsburgh is the region's principal city, with a metropolitan area population of about 2.4 million people, and serves as its economic ...
in the
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.


Course

Connoquenessing Creek rises in eastern Butler County and flows southwest, through the
Lake Oneida Oneida Lake is the largest lake entirely within New York state, with a surface area of . The lake is located northeast of Syracuse and near the Great Lakes. It feeds the Oneida River, a tributary of the Oswego River, which flows into Lake Ontario ...
reservoir and past
Butler A butler is a person who works in a house serving and is a domestic worker in a large household. In great houses, the household is sometimes divided into departments with the butler in charge of the dining room, wine cellar, and pantry. Some a ...
, then west-northwest in a
meander A meander is one of a series of regular sinuous curves in the channel of a river or other watercourse. It is produced as a watercourse erodes the sediments of an outer, concave bank ( cut bank) and deposits sediments on an inner, convex bank ...
ing course past Eidenau where
Breakneck Creek Breakneck Creek is a tributary of Connoquenessing Creek that flows in a northwardly direction in Western Pennsylvania. It forms in the village of Bakerstown in Allegheny County then flows northwest through the borough of Valencia in Butler Cou ...
is received, and then continuing past
Harmony In music, harmony is the process by which individual sounds are joined together or composed into whole units or compositions. Often, the term harmony refers to simultaneously occurring frequencies, pitches ( tones, notes), or chords. However ...
and
Zelienople Zelienople is a borough in Butler County, Pennsylvania, Butler County, Pennsylvania, north of Pittsburgh. The population was 3,812 at the 2010 census. Geography Zelienople is located in southwestern Butler County, situated on the south bank of C ...
. It receives Slippery Rock Creek from the northwest near
Ellwood City Ellwood City is a Borough (Pennsylvania), borough primarily in Lawrence County, Pennsylvania, Lawrence County, Pennsylvania, United States, with a small district in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, Beaver County. The population was 7,031 at the 2020 ...
, then joins the Beaver west of Ellwood City, approximately 3 mi (5 km) further downstream.


Watershed

In 2000, a scientific study was conducted to determine the health of the creek. Researchers discovered that only the
Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it f ...
received more toxic materials than the Connoquenessing, making the small river the second most polluted waterway in the United States. "The Armco Inc. steel facility in Butler, purchased last September
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by
AK Steel AK Steel Holdings Corporation was a steelmaking company headquartered in West Chester Township, Butler County, Ohio. The company, whose name was derived from the initials of Armco, its predecessor company, and Kawasaki Steel Corporation, was a ...
, ranked first nationally for the amount of pollutant discharges. The steelmaker legally discharged more than 29 million pounds of nitrate compounds -- a waste produced when
nitric acid Nitric acid is the inorganic compound with the formula . It is a highly corrosive mineral acid. The compound is colorless, but older samples tend to be yellow cast due to decomposition into oxides of nitrogen. Most commercially available nitri ...
is used to "pickle" or clean the surface of raw steel—into Connoquenessing Creek." However, as of 2010, the Connoquenessing Creek was not listed in the national Top 10 for polluted waterways. Also, as of 2010, Armco Inc. steel in Butler was not listed in the Top 20 in regards to national pollutant dischargers.Butler, Kiera (2012-04-02)
"America’s Top 10 Most-Polluted Waterways"
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Retrieved 2020-01-23.
The creek is a popular canoeing and
kayaking Kayaking is the use of a kayak for moving over water. It is distinguished from canoeing by the sitting position of the paddler and the number of blades on the paddle. A kayak is a low-to-the-water, canoe-like boat in which the paddler sits fac ...
destination, with many boaters entering the creek at various locations.


See also

* List of rivers of Pennsylvania


References


External links


U.S. Geological Survey: PA stream gaging stations
{{authority control Rivers of Pennsylvania Tributaries of the Beaver River Rivers of Beaver County, Pennsylvania Rivers of Butler County, Pennsylvania Rivers of Lawrence County, Pennsylvania Allegheny Plateau