Hunkydory Creek is a tributary of

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 ...

in Schuylkill County and

Luzerne County 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

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

, in the United States. It is approximately long and flows through Kline Township in Schuylkill County and Hazle Township in Luzerne County. The watershed of the creek has an area of . The creek is considered to be a Coldwater Fishery. It is likely that it is not inhabited by any species of

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 ...

. The main rock formations in the creek's watershed are the Mauch Chunk Formation, the Pottsville Formation, and the Llwellyn Formation and the main soils are the Udorthents Kill soil and the Hezleton soil.

Course

Hunkydory Creek begins at the Number Eight Reservoir in Kline Township, Schuylkill County. It flows north for several dozen feet before turning west-northwest for a few tenths of a mile. The creek then turns north and a few tenths of a mile further downstream, it exits Kline Township and Schuylkill County. Upon exiting Kline Township and Schuylkill County, Hunkydory Creek enters Hazle Township, Luzerne County. In this township, the creek flows east-northeast, roughly parallel to the border between Luzerne County and Schuylkill County, passing through a small

pond A pond is an area filled with water, either natural or artificial, that is smaller than a lake. Defining them to be less than in area, less than deep, and with less than 30% emergent vegetation helps in distinguishing their ecology from th ...

. After some distance, it turns northeast and passes through a much larger pond or small

lake A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much large ...

. At the northeastern corner of the lake, the creek loses its flow for a short distance before regaining it in another pond. On the northern edge of the pond, the creek loses its flow for a few tenths of a mile. It then reaches its confluence with Catawissa Creek. Hunkydory Creek joins Catawissa Creek upstream of its mouth.

Hydrology

Hunkydory Creek is considered by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection to be impaired by abandoned mine drainage and mining for . The creek's designated use is

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 the creek is not considered to be attaining the standards for this use.

Geography and geology

The elevation near the mouth of Hunkydory 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 of the creek's source is just over above sea level. Hunkydory Creek flows through spoil piles and unreclaimed mining land for most of its length. However, there are several rock formations in the watershed. 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 ...

is present in the watershed's western and southernmost parts. This rock formation consists of

siltstone Siltstone, also known as aleurolite, is a clastic sedimentary rock that is composed mostly of silt. It is a form of mudrock with a low clay mineral content, which can be distinguished from shale by its lack of fissility.Blatt ''et al.'' 1980, p ...

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) ...

, grayish-red

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 ...

, and conglomerate. The

Pottsville Formation The Pennsylvanian Pottsville Formation is a mapped bedrock unit in Pennsylvania, western Maryland, West Virginia, Ohio, and Alabama. It is a major ridge-former in the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians of the eastern United States. The Pottsville Fo ...

is found in its central and southwestern parts. This rock formation contains

claystone Mudrocks are a class of fine-grained siliciclastic sedimentary rocks. The varying types of mudrocks include siltstone, claystone, mudstone, slate, and shale. Most of the particles of which the stone is composed are less than and are too sm ...

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

, conglomerate, shale, and gray sandstone. Parts of the watershed's eastern section have rock of the Llewellyn Formation. Most of the watershed of the creek is on

anthracite Anthracite, also known as hard coal, and black coal, is a hard, compact variety of coal that has a submetallic luster. It has the highest carbon content, the fewest impurities, and the highest energy density of all types of coal and is the hig ...

. Hunkydory Creek flows over Udorthents

soil Soil, also commonly referred to as earth or dirt, is a mixture of organic matter, minerals, gases, liquids, and organisms that together support life. Some scientific definitions distinguish ''dirt'' from ''soil'' by restricting the former te ...

for its entire length. Nearly all of the watershed is also on this type of soil. However, its southernmost part is on Hazleton soil. The mouth of Hunkydory Creek is in an active

strip mine Surface mining, including strip mining, open-pit mining and mountaintop removal mining, is a broad category of mining in which soil and rock overlying the mineral deposit (the overburden) are removed, in contrast to underground mining, in which ...

. The lower reaches of the creek in Luzerne County are flanked by land that is prone to

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 ...

ing during a

100 year flood A 100-year flood is a flood event that has a 1 in 100 chance (1% probability) of being equaled or exceeded in any given year. The 100-year flood is also referred to as the 1% flood, since its annual exceedance probability is 1%.Holmes, R.R., Jr. ...

. The land immediately south of the Number Eight Reservoir is also prone to flooding during a 100-year flood. Hunkydory Creek is a small creek. It has a low gradient of 5.2 meters per kilometer (27.5 feet per mile), the lowest gradient of any tributary of Catawissa Creek. The creek loses its entire flow in some places where it passes through

deep mine This list of deepest mines includes operational and non-operational mines that are at least , which is the depth of Veryovkina Cave, the deepest known natural cave in the world. The depth measurements in this list represent the difference in elev ...

s. The creek's flow enters strip pits or broken strata, where it enters the Audenried Tunnel and flows into Catawissa Creek in the form of

acid mine drainage Acid mine drainage, acid and metalliferous drainage (AMD), or acid rock drainage (ARD) is the outflow of acidic water from metal mines or coal mines. Acid rock drainage occurs naturally within some environments as part of the rock weathering ...

. The mouth of Hunkydory Creek is at the headwaters of Catawissa Creek.

Watershed

The watershed of Hunkydory Creek has an area of . Most of the watershed is in Kline Township, Schuylkill County. However, small areas of it are in East Union Township, Schuylkill County, Hazle Township, Luzerne County, and Banks Township, Carbon County. The entirety of the borough of McAdoo is also in the watershed of the creek. The lower reaches of Hunkydory Creek are near the community of Kelyres. A reservoir known as Reservoir No. 8 is in the upper reaches of the creek's watershed, at its headwaters. The creek 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 Conyngham. The major roads in the watershed of Hunkydory Creek are

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 ...

and

Interstate 81 Interstate 81 (I-81) is a north–south (physically northeast–southwest) Interstate Highway in the eastern part of the United States. Its southern terminus is at I-40 in Dandridge, Tennessee; its northern terminus is on Wellesley Island ...

. Pennsylvania Route 309 traverses the eastern part of the watershed in a north–south direction. Interstate 81 traverses the western part of the watershed in a north–south direction. 70 percent of the creek's length is within of a road and 90 percent is within of one. Its entire length is within of a road. 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 of Hunkydory Creek was , making it the most population-dense sub-watershed in the Catawissa Creek drainage basin. No portion of Hunkydory Creek is accessible to be public.

History and industries

Nearly all of the watershed of Hunkydory Creek has been mined. In 2003, the

TMDL A total maximum daily load (TMDL) is a regulatory term in the U.S. Clean Water Act, describing a plan for restoring impaired waters that identifies the maximum amount of a pollutant that a body of water can receive while still meeting water quali ...

document for Catawissa Creek suggested reclaiming the land in the vicinity of the creek and restoring its

stream channel In physical geography, a channel is a type of landform consisting of the outline of a path of relatively shallow and narrow body of water or of other fluids (e.g., lava), most commonly the confine of a river, river delta or strait. The word is c ...

s. The purpose of this was to reduce the discharge of the Audenreid Tunnel.

Biology

Hunkydory Creek 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 Coldwater Fishery. It is also considered to be a Migratory Fishery. A 1997 report stated that the creek was unlikely to contain any

, although the creators of the report were unable to search for fish in it due to the fact that it is entirely on private strip mining land. The creek is closed to

fishing Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment, but may also be caught from stocked bodies of water such as ponds, canals, park wetlands and reservoirs. Fishing techniques inclu ...

References

External links

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