Crooked Run 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 ...

Catawissa Creek Catawissa Creek (colloquially known as The Cat) is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed August 8, 2011 tributary of the Susquehanna River in east-central Pennsylvania in th ...

Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania Schuylkill County (, ; Pennsylvania Dutch: Schulkill Kaundi) is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is located in the heart of Pennsylvania's Coal Region and is part of Northeastern Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the popula ...

, in the United States. It is approximately long and flows through North Union Township. The watershed of the stream has an area of . The stream is considered to be a High-Quality Coldwater Fishery and

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 ...

. However, it is impaired by atmospheric deposition. The main rock formations in the stream's watershed are the Mauch Chunk Formation and the Pocono Formation and the main soils are the Leck Kill soil and the Hazleton soil.

Course

Crooked Run begins on Catawissa Mountain in North Union Township. It flows east-southeast for a few tenths of a mile before turning roughly east for some distance and eventually flowing off Catawissa Mountain. The stream then turns northeast and begins to skirt the edge of the mountain for more than a mile. It then turns north for a few tenths of a mile, crossing Raricks Road, before turning west and then north again, flowing parallel to Bunker Hill Road for a few tenths of a mile. Several tenths of a mile downstream, the stream reaches its confluence with Catawissa Creek, a few hundred feet from the border between Schuylkill County and Columbia County. Crooked Run joins Catawissa Creek upstream of its mouth.

Tributaries

Crooked Run has one unnamed tributary.

Hydrology

The upper reaches of Crooked Run are 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 impaired for aquatic life by atmospheric deposition due to pH. The stream is infertile and acidic, with the potential to be affected by

acidic precipitation In computer science, ACID ( atomicity, consistency, isolation, durability) is a set of properties of database transactions intended to guarantee data validity despite errors, power failures, and other mishaps. In the context of databases, a sequ ...

. The pH of the stream ranges from 5.8 to 6.6 and 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 ...

ranges from 3 to 5 milligrams per liter. An alkalinity concentration of 16 milligrams per liter has been observed using

methyl orange Methyl orange is a pH indicator frequently used in titration because of its clear and distinct color variance at different pH values. Methyl orange shows red color in acidic medium and yellow color in basic medium. Because it changes color at the ...

upstream of the stream's mouth. The total concentration of

water hardness Hard water is water that has high mineral content (in contrast with "soft water"). Hard water is formed when water percolates through deposits of limestone, chalk or gypsum, which are largely made up of calcium and magnesium carbonates, bicarbo ...

in the stream is 5 milligrams per liter upstream of its mouth and 10 milligrams per liter upstream of the mouth. On June 25, 1997 at 10:00 A.M., the air temperature in the vicinity of Crooked Run upstream of its mouth was and the water temperature was . One hour and 35 minutes later, the air temperature near the stream upstream of its mouth was and the water temperature was . The

specific conductivity Specific may refer to: * Specificity (disambiguation) * Specific, a cure or therapy for a specific illness Law * Specific deterrence, focussed on an individual * Specific finding, intermediate verdict used by a jury in determining the fina ...

of the stream's waters upstream of its mouth and upstream of its mouth are 32 and 21 μmhos, respectively.

Geography and geology

The elevation near the mouth of Crooked Run 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 of the source of the stream is just over above sea level. The upper reaches of Crooked Run are on rock of the

Pocono Formation The Mississippian Pocono Formation is a mapped bedrock unit in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and West Virginia, in the United States. It is also known as the Pocono Group in Maryland and West Virginia, and the upper part of the Pocono Formation is somet ...

, which dates to the Mississippian Period. The rest of the stream flows over rock of the

Mauch Chunk Formation The Mississippian Mauch Chunk Formation is a mapped bedrock unit in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and West Virginia. It is named for the township of Mauch Chunk, now known as borough of Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania and for nearby Mauch Chunk Ridge where th ...

. The lower reaches of the stream are on Leck Kill soil and the upper reaches are on Hazleton soil. Crooked Run is a small stream, with a width of 2.9 meters (9.5 feet). It has a high gradient of 39.3 meters per kilometer.

Watershed

The watershed of Crooked Run has an area of . Most of the watershed is in North Union Township. However, a substantial portion of it is in northern Union Township and a small portion is in southeastern Roaring Creek Township, Columbia County. The stream flows through

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 in its lower half. There are also forested lands in the watershed. Crooked Run 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, ...

quadrangles of Shumans and Nuremberg. The watershed is part of the Lower North Branch Susquehanna

drainage basin A drainage basin is an area of land where all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, t ...

. 22 percent of the length of Crooked Run is within of a road. 49 percent of the stream's length is within of a road and 65 percent is within of one. In 1990, the

population density Population density (in agriculture: standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geographical term.Matt RosenberPopul ...

of the watershed was 22 people per square kilometer.

Biology

Crooked Run is considered by the

Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is the agency in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania responsible for protecting and preserving the land, air, water, and public health through enforcement of the state's environmental laws. ...

to be a High-Quality Coldwater Fishery. It is considered by the

to be Class A Wild Trout Waters between its headwaters and its mouth.

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 ...

inhabit Crooked Run upstream of their mouth and are the only fish inhabiting the stream at this point. In a survey 1997, their biomass at this location was measured to be 106.48 kilograms per hectare, which was the highest wild trout biomass of any tributary of Catawissa Creek observed during the survey. Brook trout less than 175 millimeters long make up 74.12 kilograms per hectare and brook trout more than 175 millimeters long make up 32.36 kilograms per hectare. The lengths of the trout in the stream range from 25 to 224 millimeters. Brook trout,

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 ...

rainbow trout The rainbow trout (''Oncorhynchus mykiss'') is a species of trout native to cold-water tributaries of the Pacific Ocean in Asia and North America. The steelhead (sometimes called "steelhead trout") is an anadromous (sea-run) form of the coasta ...

, and

tiger trout The tiger trout (''Salmo trutta'' × ''Salvelinus fontinalis'') is a sterile, intergeneric hybrid of the brown trout (''Salmo trutta'') and the brook trout (''Salvelinus fontinalis''). Pronounced vermiculations in the fish's patterning gave rise ...

were all observed in the stream upstream of its mouth, but many of these had escaped from the nearby Zion Grove Trout Hatchery. There are 2315 brook trout per kilometer on Crooked Run, of which 2215 are less than 175 millimeters long and 100 are more than 175 millimeters long. There are 11,576 brook trout per hectare, of which 11,076 are less than 175 millimeters long and 500 are more than 175 millimeters long. A 1997 report stated that Crooked Run was an excellent site for angling.

References

External links

Map of the Catawissa Creek watershed
{{authority control Rivers of Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania Tributaries of Catawissa Creek Rivers of Pennsylvania