Mahanoy Creek looking downstream near its mouth

Mahanoy Creek Mahanoy Creek 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 Northumberland and Schuylkill counties, Pennsylvania. There are ...

is a long

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

Susquehanna River The Susquehanna River (; Lenape: Siskëwahane) is a major river located in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, overlapping between the lower Northeast and the Upland South. At long, it is the longest river on the East Coast of the ...

in Schuylkill County and Northumberland County, 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 has eleven officially named tributaries, of which six are direct tributaries and five are sub-tributaries. These include seven creeks and four runs. The largest tributary by both length and watershed area is

Schwaben Creek Schwaben Creek is a tributary of Mahanoy Creek in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, in the United States. Schwaben Creek is approximately long.U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map ...

, which is long and drains an area of . The second-largest by these measures is

Zerbe Run Zerbe Run (also known as Zerbe Creek) is a tributary of Mahanoy Creek in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, in the United States. It is approximately long and flows through Coal Township, Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, Coal Township, Zerb ...

, which is long and drains an area of . Many of the tributaries of Mahanoy Creek have been impacted by mining, including Zerbe Run,

Shenandoah Creek Shenandoah Creek is a tributary of Mahanoy Creek in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, in the United States. It is at least long and flows through Shenandoah, West Mahanoy Township, Butler Township, and Girardville. Course Shenandoah Creek begins ...

, and North Mahanoy Creek. Schwaben Creek and

Little Mahanoy Creek Little Mahanoy Creek is a tributary of Mahanoy Creek in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania. It starts in the borough of Frackville and joins Mahanoy Creek in the borough of Gordon, Pennsylvania, Gordon. Its one named tributary is Rattling Run. The c ...

are the only large tributaries that are not affected by mining. Many of the upper tributaries are in the

Western Middle Anthracite Field The Western Middle Anthracite Field is a large basin containing veins of anthracite coal in Pennsylvania. The region is in the Appalachian Mountains and is the third-largest anthracite field in the anthracite region in Eastern Pennsylvania behind ...

. In March 2001, the officially named tributary with the highest discharge was Zerbe Run at Dornsife (), while the tributary with the lowest discharge was Lost Creek (). In August of that year, Little Mahanoy Creek had the highest discharge () and North Mahanoy Creek had the lowest discharge (0 discharge). In March 2001, the pH ranged from 4.7 for Lost Creek to 8.4 for Schwaben Creek. Some streams were downstream of

abandoned mine drainage Abandoned mine drainage (also known as AMD) is a form of water pollution involving water that has been polluted by contact with mines, typically coal mines. Although it is sometimes called "acid mine drainage", not all abandoned mine drainage i ...

discharges accounting for their acidity. In 2001, Schwaben Creek was the only named tributary of Mahanoy Creek that was found to contain fish; it had twenty different species. However, every officially named tributary save for Rattling Run had

macroinvertebrate Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chordate s ...

s. The

Hilsenhoff Biotic Index The Hilsenhoff Biotic Index (HBI) is a quantitative method of evaluating the abundance of arthropod fauna in stream ecosystems as a measurement of estimating water quality based on the predetermined pollution tolerances of the observed taxa. This bi ...

values for macroinvertebrate families in all other tributaries ranged from 10 for Shenandoah Creek at Lost Creek to 3.76 for Schwaben Creek; lower values are ideal (values under 3.75 are considered "excellent", while values over 7.25 are considered "very poor"). Although Mahanoy Creek is classified as a Warmwater Fishery, all of its tributaries are classified as Coldwater Fisheries, save for Schwaben Creek and its tributaries Mouse Creek and Middle Creek, which are Trout Stocked Fisheries. Little Mahanoy Creek is the only named tributary to contain wild

trout Trout are species of freshwater fish belonging to the genera '' Oncorhynchus'', ''Salmo'' and ''Salvelinus'', all of the subfamily Salmoninae of the family Salmonidae. The word ''trout'' is also used as part of the name of some non-salmoni ...

Tributaries of Mahanoy Creek

Tributaries of Schwaben Creek

Tributaries of Little Mahanoy Creek

Tributaries of Shenandoah Creek

See also

References

External links