Fades Creek is a tributary of

Pikes Creek Pikes Creek (also known as Pike Creek) is a tributary of Harveys Creek in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, in the United States. It is approximately long and flows through Lake Township, Lehman Township, Jackson Township, and Plymouth Township. ...

in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, in the United States. It is approximately long and flows through Lake Township. The watershed of the creek has an area of . It has one unnamed tributary and is designated as 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 ...

for part of its length. The creek is crossed by a pipeline and a bridge carrying Pennsylvania Route 118. Wisconsinan Ice-Intact Stratified Drift, alluvium, Wisconsinan Till, Wisconsinan Bouldery Till, and bedrock consisting of sandstone and shale all occur in the surficial geology in the creek's vicinity.

Course

Fades Creek begins in a valley at the base of a hill in Lake Township. It flows south for a few tenths of a mile before turning southwest and then gradually turning southeast, passing through a pond. The creek continues flowing southeast in a narrow valley for more than a mile, receiving an unnamed tributary from the right and entering the community of

. It then turns south-southeast for nearly a mile, crossing Pennsylvania Route 118, before turning east-southeast. The creek then crosses Pennsylvania Route 29 and within several hundred feet reaches its confluence with Pikes Creek.

Hydrology

The concentration of alkalinity in the waters of Fades Creek is 10 milligrams per liter. At its mouth, the peak annual

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 ...

of Fades Creek has a 10 percent chance of reaching 424 cubic feet per second. It has a 2 percent chance of reaching 775 cubic feet per second and a 1 percent chance of reaching 969 cubic feet per second. The peak annual discharge has a 0.2 percent chance of reaching 1543 cubic feet per second. Fades Creek has been contaminated by sediment runoff during wet weather. However, in 2009, Lake Township received a $131,044 to alleviate the problem by repairing Wesley Road and Bear Hollow Road. This project involved raising the grade of Wesley Road and constructing

Swale Swale or Swales may refer to: Topography * Swale (landform), a low tract of land ** Bioswale, landform designed to remove silt and pollution ** Swales, found in the formation of Hummocky cross-stratification Geography * River Swale, in North ...

s to divert

stormwater Stormwater, also spelled storm water, is water that originates from precipitation (storm), including heavy rain and meltwater from hail and snow. Stormwater can soak into the soil ( infiltrate) and become groundwater, be stored on depressed la ...

away from the creek.

Geography and geology

Fades Creek looking downstream in its upper reaches

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 Fades Creek is between above sea level. The elevation near the source is between above sea level. Fades Creek is crossed by a

pipeline Pipeline may refer to: Electronics, computers and computing * Pipeline (computing), a chain of data-processing stages or a CPU optimization found on ** Instruction pipelining, a technique for implementing instruction-level parallelism within a s ...

at river mile 1.6. There are three features on the creek that are identified by the Federal Emergency Management Agency as obstructions. For most of its length, the surficial geology in the vicinity of Fades Creek consists of alluvium, Wisconsinan Ice-Intact Stratified Drift, and resedimented or glacial tills such as Wisconsinan Till and Wisconsinan Bouldery Till. However,

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 and

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 ...

also occurs in the surficial geology in the creek's vicinity, as do a few small patches of wetland.

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 Fades Creek has an area of . Fades Creek flows through the United States Geological Survey quadrangles of Harveys Lake and Sweet Valley. The entire length of Fades 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 ...

. Fades Creek, along with Beaver Run, Pikes Creek, and Harveys Creek, is one of the main sources of flooding in Lake Township. However, these creeks' floods have not caused extensive damage, since the township is relatively undeveloped.

History

Fades Creek was entered into the Geographic Names Information System on August 2, 1979. Its identifier in the Geographic Names Information System is 1192440. In the early 1900s, the commissioners of Luzerne County requested permission to construct a bridge over a tributary of Fades Creek. This bridge was on a road between the communities of

and Kettle. A concrete slab bridge carrying Pennsylvania Route 118 over Fades Creek was constructed in 1932 and repaired in 1960. It is long and is situated in Lake Township near Pennsylvania Route 29.

Biology

Fades 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

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 ...

from the pipeline crossing downstream to its mouth. However, wild trout naturally reproduce in the creek throughout its entire length. The creek is also designated as a High-Quality Coldwater Fishery.

References

{{authority control Rivers of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania Tributaries of Harveys Creek Rivers of Pennsylvania