Pine Creek is a tributary of

Mahantango Creek Mahantango 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 Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, Dauphin, Northumberland County, P ...

in Schuylkill and Dauphin counties,

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. The creek flows through Foster Township, Hegins Township, Hubley Township, and Upper Mahantango Township in Schuylkill County and Lykens Township in Dauphin County. The creek's watershed has an area of and its tributaries include Rausch Creek and Deep Creek. Pine Creek is considered by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection to be impaired by abandoned mine drainage and resource extraction. However, it is designated as a coldwater fishery.

Course

Pine Creek begins in southwestern Foster Township, Schuylkill County, near Interstate 81. The creek heads west-southwest into a valley, entering Hegins Township, where it passes through Dell Lake. Some distance downstream, the valley broadens significantly and the creek turns west. The creek continues west for many miles, flowing parallel to Good Spring Mountain. It passes by the community of Valley View and receives the tributary Rausch Creek and continues west, entering Hubley Township. In Hubley Township, the creek passes near the community of Sacramento. A few miles further on, it crosses

Pennsylvania Route 25 Pennsylvania Route 25 (PA 25) is a state highway located in Dauphin and Schuylkill counties in central Pennsylvania. The western terminus of the route is at U.S. Route 209 (US 209) in Millersburg. The eastern terminus is at US 209 in Newtown ...

, passes through the community of Spring Glen, and begins

meander A meander is one of a series of regular sinuous curves in the channel of a river or other watercourse. It is produced as a watercourse erodes the sediments of an outer, concave bank ( cut bank) and deposits sediments on an inner, convex bank ...

ing northwest, away from Good Spring Mountain. The creek receives the tributary Deep Creek there. Further downstream, Pine Creek leaves Schuylkill County. Upon leaving Schuylkill County, Pine Creek enters Lykens Township, Dauphin County. Here, the creek flows west for a short distance before turning north. It then cuts through a ridge and re-enters Schuylkill County, this time in Upper Mahantango Township. A short distance downstream, the creek reaches its confluence with Mahantango Creek. Pine Creek joins Mahantango Creek upstream of its mouth.

Tributaries

Tributaries of Pine Creek include Rausch Creek and Deep Creek. Rausch Creek joins Pine Creek upstream of its mouth and its watershed has an area of . Deep Creek reaches its confluence with Pine Creek upstream of the latter creek's mouth. The watershed of this tributary has an area of .

Hydrology and metals

Pine 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 impaired by

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 ...

and resource extraction. Most of the creek is considered to be impaired, as is the entirety of the tributary Rausch Creek. One of Pine Creek's subtributaries in the Deep Creek sub-watershed is also impaired. The rest of the steams in the watershed are not considered by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection to be impaired. South of the community of Fountain, the daily load of

aluminum Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. It has ...

in the waters of Pine Creek is . At the Gap School Road bridge, the aluminum load is per day and the daily load is at the Schwenks Road bridge. At the Pennsylvania Route 25 bridge near the community of Spring Glen, the daily load is . At the end of State Route 4015, the daily load of aluminum is and at the Michaels Food Products Bridge in Klingerstown, it is . South of the community of Fountain, the daily load of

manganese Manganese is a chemical element with the symbol Mn and atomic number 25. It is a hard, brittle, silvery metal, often found in minerals in combination with iron. Manganese is a transition metal with a multifaceted array of industrial alloy use ...

iron Iron () is a chemical element with symbol Fe (from la, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, right in f ...

Hydrology, pH, acidity, and discharge

South of the community of Fountain, the daily load of acidity in the waters of Pine Creek is . At the Gap School Road bridge, the aluminum load is per day and the daily load is at the Schwenks Road bridge. At the Pennsylvania Route 25 bridge near the community of Spring Glen, the daily load is . At the end of State Route 4015, the daily load of aluminum is and at the Michaels Food Products Bridge in Klingerstown, it is . The pH of Pine Creek south of the community of Fountain ranges from 6.2 to 7.1. The creek's pH ranges from 6.5 to 7 at the Gap School Road bridge and at the Schwenks Road bridge, the pH ranges from 6.65 to 6.9. The pH ranges between 6.2 and 6.9 at the Pennsylvania Route 25 bridge near the community of Spring Glen and it ranges from 6.5 to 7 at the end of State Route 4015. At the Michaels Food Products Bridge in Klingerstown, the pH ranges between 6.3 and 6.9. The

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 Pine Creek south of the community of Fountain is 2364.5 gallons per minute. The creek's discharge is 8706.47 gallons per minute at the Gap School Road bridge and at the Schwenks Road bridge, the discharge is 18807.06 gallons per minute . It is 20099.86 gallons per minute at the Pennsylvania Route 25 bridge near the community of Spring Glen and is 42252.4 gallons per minute at the end of State Route 4015. At the Michaels Food Products Bridge in Klingerstown, the discharge is 48122.62 gallons per minute.

Geography and geology

The elevation near the mouth of Pine Creek is above sea level. The elevation of the creek's source is between and . The elevation of the creek decreases at a rate of per mile from its source to 18

river mile A river mile is a measure of distance in miles along a river from its mouth. River mile numbers begin at zero and increase further upstream. The corresponding metric unit using kilometers is the river kilometer. They are analogous to vehicle road ...

s. From that point to the mouth, the rate of elevation decrease is per mile. The watershed of Pine Creek is within the Anthracite Uplands section of the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians physiological province. The headwaters of Pine Creek are located in Hegins Valley. This valley is situated between Mahantango Mountain and Broad Mountain. The tributary Deep Creek is also in Hegins Valley, being separated from Pine Creek by a low ridge within the valley. Pine Creek also flows through a water gap in Mahantango Mountain near its mouth. The main rock types in the watershed of Pine Creek are

interbedded In geology, interbedding occurs when beds (layers of rock) of a particular lithology lie between or alternate with beds of a different lithology. For example, sedimentary rocks may be interbedded if there were sea level variations in their sedimen ...

sedimentary rock Sedimentary rocks are types of rock that are formed by the accumulation or deposition of mineral or organic particles at Earth's surface, followed by cementation. Sedimentation is the collective name for processes that cause these particles ...

and

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) ...

. The

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 ...

s in the watershed are well-drained and permeable. The Lykens Valley

coal seam Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...

, which is part of the Pottsville Formation, is found in the watershed's southeastern portion. This is the only coal seam in the watershed. The channel of Pine Creek is tortuous. The creek's bottom is rocky or sandy. Riffles and pools occur along it.

Watershed

The watershed of Pine Creek has an area of . The watershed is on 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, ...

7.5 minute quadrangles of Klingerstown, Lykens, Minersville, Tower City, Tremont, and Valley View. The watershed of Pine Creek is situated in western Schuylkill County and northeastern Dauphin County. The topography of the Pine Creek watershed is described as "rough and hilly" in a 1921 book. The communities in the watershed of Pine Creek include Valley View, Hegins, Klingerstown, and Sacramento. In 1921, these communities had populations of 580, 400, 204, and 202, respectively.

History

Underground mining Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic via ...

of anthracite was being done in the watershed of Pine Creek by the middle of the nineteenth century. In the twenty-first century, there is one mining permit in the watershed. It belongs to the Pine Creek Coal Company. In the early 1900s, the main industries in the watershed of Pine Creek were coal mines and

agriculture Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to ...

. The creek was also used as water power for a number of mills.

Biology

Pine Creek is designated for use by aquatic life. It is also designated as a coldwater fishery. There are few

pine A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. The World Flora Online created by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Missouri Botanical Garden accep ...

trees along Pine Creek, with groves of hemlock being present instead. Some of the hemlock trees along the creek have trunks that are over .

Recreation

It is possible to canoe on at least of Pine Creek during the winter, during

snowmelt In hydrology, snowmelt is surface runoff produced from melting snow. It can also be used to describe the period or season during which such runoff is produced. Water produced by snowmelt is an important part of the annual water cycle in many part ...

s or soon after heavy rains. Edward Gertler describes the creek as a "diminutive novice run" in his book ''Keystone Canoeing''. Gertler describes the scenery along the creek as "good". However, there are electric fences and deadfalls on it.

References

{{authority control Rivers of Pennsylvania Tributaries of Mahantango Creek Rivers of Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania