The Peckman River 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
Passaic River
Passaic River ( ) is a river, approximately long, in Northern New Jersey. The river in its upper course flows in a highly circuitous route, meandering through the swamp lowlands between the ridge hills of rural and suburban northern New Jersey, ...
in
Essex
Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...
and
Passaic
Passaic ( or ) is a city in Passaic County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the city had a total population of 70,537, ranking as the 16th largest municipality in New Jersey and an increase of 656 from the 69,7 ...
Counties,
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...
in the United States.
The Peckman River originates in the township of
West Orange and flows northeasterly through the townships of
Verona
Verona ( , ; vec, Verona or ) is a city on the Adige River in Veneto, Northern Italy, Italy, with 258,031 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region. It is the largest city Comune, municipality in the region and the ...
,
Cedar Grove and
Little Falls to its confluence with the Passaic River in the borough of
Woodland Park (formerly West Paterson).
Devil's Hole
The Peckman River passes through a number of suburban areas en route from its narrow and shallow start at Eagle Rock Reservation in West Orange. Few features define the waterway save for a short waterfall and pool, known as Devil's Hole, located in Cedar Grove and which is used locally as a swimming hole. The falls were created by the addition of Van Orden's Dam during the Dutch settlement of the region. Historians state that the water from Devil's Hole previously powered a steam boiler at the Van Orden Corset Company factory south of the site. On June 18, 2014, a teenager from Newark, NJ drowned while swimming in the hole. Swimming in Devil's Hole was banned by a local ordinance in 2018.
Flooding
As a tributary of the Passaic River, the Peckman River has been the subject of frequently flooding, particularly from the mid-2000s. The United States Army Corps of Engineers attributes this flooding to an increase in storms and heavy rainfall, which exceed the drainage capacity of the surrounding area. The USACE notes that recent floods have degraded the ecology of Passaic River Basin, largely as a result of erosion, and consistent with the long-term impact seen in watersheds which are heavily urbanized. Moreover, development throughout the region has reduced the drainage capacity of the basin.
See also
*
List of rivers of New Jersey
This is a list of streams and rivers of the U.S. state of New Jersey.
List of New Jersey rivers includes streams formally designated as rivers. There are also smaller streams (''i.e.,'' branches, creeks, drains, forks, licks, runs, etc.) in the ...
References
External links
U.S. Geological Survey: NJ stream gaging stationsTopoQuest map of the Peckman River in Woodland Park and Little Falls
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Rivers of Essex County, New Jersey
Rivers of Passaic County, New Jersey
Tributaries of the Passaic River
Rivers of New Jersey