Mill Creek (also known as Little Mill 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

Lackawanna River The Lackawanna River 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 Northeastern Pennsylvania. It flows through a region of th ...

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 ...

and

Lackawanna County Lackawanna County (; unm, Lèkaohane) is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is located in Northeastern Pennsylvania and had a population of 215,896 as of the 2020 census. Its county seat and largest city is Scranton. The 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 is approximately long and flows through

Pittston Township Pittston Township is a township in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. The population was 3,179 as of the 2020 census. The township is located within the Greater Pittston region. As of 2010, the total population of Greater Pittston was 48,020. The Wilkes ...

Dupont DuPont de Nemours, Inc., commonly shortened to DuPont, is an American multinational chemical company first formed in 1802 by French-American chemist and industrialist Éleuthère Irénée du Pont de Nemours. The company played a major role in ...

, Avoca, and

Duryea Duryea may refer to: *Duryea (surname) *Duryea Motor Wagon Company, first American automobile company *Duryea, Pennsylvania Duryea is a borough in the Greater Pittston area of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, United States, south of Scranton. The Su ...

in Luzerne County and

Moosic Moosic ( ) is a borough in Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania, south of downtown Scranton and northeast of downtown Wilkes-Barre, on the Lackawanna River. Moosic is in a former coal-mining region. A few older industries existed at one time, includ ...

in Lackawanna County. The watershed of the creek has an area of . It is designated as a Coldwater Fishery and a Migratory Fishery. The creek has two named tributaries: Collins Creek and Lidy Creek. The surficial geology in its vicinity includes urban land, coal dumps, surface mining land, Wisconsinan Ice-Contact Stratified Drift, Wisconsinan Till, and bedrock.

Course

Mill Creek begins in a valley near Dark Hollow in Pittston Township, Luzerne County. It flows west for several tenths of a mile before turning north for several tenths of a mile and leaving the valley. The creek then turns west-southwest for a few tenths of a mile before turning north. It receives Collins Creek, its first named tributary, from the

right Rights are law, legal, social, or ethics, ethical principles of Liberty, freedom or entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people according to some legal system, social convent ...

and continues flowing north for more than a mile. It crosses

Interstate 476 Interstate 476 (I-476) is a auxiliary Interstate Highway of I-76 in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. The highway runs from I-95 near Chester north to I-81 near Scranton, serving as the primary north–south Interstate corridor throu ...

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 ...

before entering Dupont, where it crosses

Pennsylvania Route 315 Pennsylvania Route 315 (PA 315) is an state highway located in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. The southern terminus is at an interchange with the PA 309 freeway and the northern terminus of PA 309 Business (PA 309 Bus.) in Wilkes-Barre. The no ...

. The creek eventually turns north-northeast and receives Lidy Creek, its last named tributary, from the right. It then turns north again and enters Avoca, where it turns north-northwest for a few tenths of a mile. It then turns northeast for a few tenths of a mile before turning northwest and then northeast again. The creek then turns north, passes through Duryea, and exits Luzerne County. Upon exiting Luzerne County, Mill Creek enters Moosic, Lackawanna County. It flows north for several tenths of a mile before reaching its confluence with the Lackawanna River. Mill Creek joins the Lackawanna River upriver of its mouth.

Tributaries

Mill Creek has two named tributaries: Lidy Creek and Collins Creek, both of which are "high quality" watersheds. Lidy Creek joins Mill Creek upstream of its mouth. Its watershed has an area of . Collins Creek joins Mill Creek upstream of its mouth. Its watershed has an area of . Mill Creek also has one unnamed tributary known as "Unnamed trib 1". This tributary is long.

Hydrology

In 2001, Mill Creek was noted to have total flow loss. The creek begins to lose its flow near O'Hara Road. It is also affected by urban

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 ...

in this reach. The tributaries Lidy Creek and Collins Creek also lose flow to mine pools.

Geography and geology

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 Mill 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 Source may refer to: Research * Historical document * Historical source * Source (intelligence) or sub source, typically a confidential provider of non open-source intelligence * Source (journalism), a person, publication, publishing institute o ...

is between above sea level. The floodplain of Mill Creek has extensive deposits of culm and

silt Silt is granular material of a size between sand and clay and composed mostly of broken grains of quartz. Silt may occur as a soil (often mixed with sand or clay) or as sediment mixed in suspension with water. Silt usually has a floury feel when ...

left over from former mining operations. The upper reaches of Mill Creek are in the vicinity of Suscon Mountain, a mountain in the Moosic Mountain range. The creek also flows through a steep

ravine A ravine is a landform that is narrower than a canyon and is often the product of streambank erosion.splash pool A splash pad or spray pool is a recreation area, often in a public park, for water play that has little or no standing water. This is said to eliminate the need for lifeguards or other supervision, as there is little risk of drowning. Typicall ...

s, and

waterfall A waterfall is a point in a river or stream where water flows over a vertical drop or a series of steep drops. Waterfalls also occur where meltwater drops over the edge of a tabular iceberg or ice shelf. Waterfalls can be formed in several wa ...

s in this ravine. Mill Creek passes through the Llewellyn coal formation at an elevation of approximately above sea level. There is no evidence of

strip mining 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 ...

in the creek's upper reaches. However, there is evidence of it downstream of Interstate 81. The surficial geology in the vicinity of the creek mainly consists of urban land. However, coal dumps, surface mining land, Wisconsinan Ice-Contact Stratified Drift, and

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 ...

are also present. Further upstream, the surficial geology consists of Wisconsinan Till and bedrock, as well as other things.

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 Mill Creek has an area of . The watershed is in the southwestern part of the Lackawanna River watershed. It occupies portions of Moosic, Avoca, Dupont, Duryea, Hugestown, Pittson Township, and Jenkins Township. The creek is entirely within 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 Avoca. There are two small

dam A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use, a ...

s on Mill Creek. Both have been breached and converted to

wetland A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The ...

History

Mill Creek was entered into the

Geographic Names Information System The Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) is a database of name and locative information about more than two million physical and cultural features throughout the United States and its territories, Antarctica, and the associated states of ...

on August 2, 1979. Its identifier in the Geographic Names Information System is 1181131. The creek is also known as Little Mill Creek. This name appears in Patton's Philadelphia and Suburbs Street and Road Map, which was published in 1984. The

Erie Railroad The Erie Railroad was a railroad that operated in the northeastern United States, originally connecting New York City — more specifically Jersey City, New Jersey, where Erie's Pavonia Terminal, long demolished, used to stand — with Lake Erie ...

historically passed through the watershed of Mill Creek. The abandoned railroad grade still remains. Channelization work was done on of Mill Creek in Dupont in 1938 by the

Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, i ...

. In 1958, the

United States Bureau of Mines For most of the 20th century, the United States Bureau of Mines (USBM) was the primary United States government agency conducting scientific research and disseminating information on the extraction, processing, use, and conservation of mineral r ...

channelized of the creek in Dupont. In 2000, 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. ...

channelized of the creek in Avoca. In 2001, the Lackawanna River Watershed Conservation Plan recommended cleaning up coal waste sediments along Mill Creek.

Biology

The drainage basin of Mill Creek is designated as a Coldwater Fishery and a Migratory Fishery. Mill Creek has a

riparian buffer A riparian buffer or stream buffer is a vegetated area (a "buffer strip") near a stream, usually forested, which helps shade and partially protect the stream from the impact of adjacent land uses. It plays a key role in increasing water quality i ...

in its

floodplain A floodplain or flood plain or bottomlands is an area of land adjacent to a river which stretches from the banks of its channel to the base of the enclosing valley walls, and which experiences flooding during periods of high discharge.Goudi ...

. In the ravine that the creek flows through, there is a hemlock canopy and an

understory In forestry and ecology, understory (American English), or understorey (Commonwealth English), also known as underbrush or undergrowth, includes plant life growing beneath the forest canopy without penetrating it to any great extent, but abov ...

consisting of

rhododendron ''Rhododendron'' (; from Ancient Greek ''rhódon'' "rose" and ''déndron'' "tree") is a very large genus of about 1,024 species of woody plants in the heath family (Ericaceae). They can be either evergreen or deciduous. Most species are nati ...

. The creek also passes through a mixed oak forest with an area of at least .

References

External links

Google Street View image of Mill Creek
{{authority control Rivers of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania Rivers of Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania Tributaries of the Lackawanna River Rivers of Pennsylvania