Reservoir 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 ...

South Branch Newport Creek South Branch Newport Creek is a tributary of Newport Creek in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, in the United States. It is long. The entire watershed of the creek is considered by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection to be impaired ...

Luzerne County, Pennsylvania 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 the United States. It is approximately long and flows through Newport Township. The creek is in the United States Geological Survey quadrangle of Nanticoke. Most of the land in its vicinity is forested land, but there are also some patches of developed land, agricultural land, and "disturbed" land. The main

rock formation A rock formation is an isolated, scenic, or spectacular surface rock outcrop. Rock formations are usually the result of weathering and erosion sculpting the existing rock. The term ''rock formation'' can also refer to specific sediment ...

s in the watershed are the Llwellyn Formation, the Mauch Chunk Formation, the Pottsville Formation, and the Pocono Formation. The main soils are the Lackawanna-Arnot-Morris series and the Udorthents-Urban Land-Volusia series. The creek is considered by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection to be impaired.

Course

Reservoir Creek begins in a valley on

Little Wilkes-Barre Mountain Little is a synonym for small size and may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Little'' (album), 1990 debut album of Vic Chesnutt * ''Little'' (film), 2019 American comedy film *The Littles, a series of children's novels by American author John P ...

in Newport Township. It flows east for several tenths of a mile before entering a

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 ...

and turning north. After several tenths of a mile, the creek leaves Little Wilkes-Barre Mountain and turns north-northwest, flowing along the border of Wanamie. After a short distance, it turns north and reaches its confluence with South Branch Newport Creek.

Hydrology

The entire length of Reservoir 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 ...

due to pH and

siltation Siltation, is water pollution caused by particulate terrestrial clastic material, with a particle size dominated by silt or clay. It refers both to the increased concentration of suspended sediments and to the increased accumulation (temporary or ...

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 Reservoir 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 lower reaches of Reservoir Creek are on rock of the Llwellyn Formation. Further upstream, there is a thin band of

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 ...

. The creek's upper reaches are on rock of 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 ...

. Just south of its upper reaches is an area of rock of the

Pocono Formation The Mississippian Pocono Formation is a mapped bedrock unit in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and West Virginia, in the United States. It is also known as the Pocono Group in Maryland and West Virginia, and the upper part of the Pocono Formation is somet ...

. The lower reaches of Reservoir Creek are on

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 ...

of the Udorthents-Urban Land-Volusia series. However, the creek's upper reaches are on soil of the Lackawanna-Arnot-Morris series. At some point in the past, the course of Reservoir Creek was altered from its original course. A portion of Little Wilkes-Barre Mountain is in the watershed of Reservoir Creek.

Watershed

Reservoir 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 Nanticoke. Most of the land in the vicinity of Reservoir Creek is

forest A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...

ed land. However, there are some small patches of

agricultural Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating Plant, plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of Sedentism, sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of Domestication, domesticated species created food ...

land and "disturbed" land. Some developed land is present in the village of Wanamie, not far from the creek's mouth. A portion of Reservoir Creek is within a 300-acre tract of land protected by the North Branch Land Trust. It mainly contains a forest of

hardwood Hardwood is wood from dicot trees. These are usually found in broad-leaved temperate and tropical forests. In temperate and boreal latitudes they are mostly deciduous, but in tropics and subtropics mostly evergreen. Hardwood (which comes from ...

trees and

softwood file:Pinus sylvestris wood ray section 1 beentree.jpg, Scots Pine, a typical and well-known softwood Softwood is wood from gymnosperm trees such as conifers. The term is opposed to hardwood, which is the wood from angiosperm trees. The main diff ...

conifer Conifers are a group of conifer cone, cone-bearing Spermatophyte, seed plants, a subset of gymnosperms. Scientifically, they make up the phylum, division Pinophyta (), also known as Coniferophyta () or Coniferae. The division contains a single ...

s. A

reservoir A reservoir (; from French ''réservoir'' ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, built to store fresh water or it may be a natural formation. Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including contro ...

known as the Wanamie Reservoir was located on Reservoir Creek. Historically, it was

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 ...

med by the Wanamie Dam and had an area of 15 to 20 acres. However, the dam was removed in 2007 for safety reasons and the reservoir was drained in the same year. The remains of the dam can still be found in the area.

History

Reservoir 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 1, 1989. Its identifier in the Geographic Names Information System is 1212408.

Coal mining 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 ...

has been done in the vicinity of Reservoir Creek in the past. In 2014, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection requested $114 million from the Abandoned Mine Land Program for a series of abandoned mine-related projects. One such project involved rerouting a section of Reservoir Creek away from areas at risk of

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 and closing several mine openings in the area. This project takes place on a 42-acre tract of land and is estimated to cost less than $1,000,000. A 1320-foot stretch of the creek is to be relocated to a more stable channel and the old unstable channel is to be filled in.

References

External links

Image of Reservoir Creek
{{authority control Rivers of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania Tributaries of the Susquehanna River Rivers of Pennsylvania