Sugar Notch Run 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 ...

Solomon Creek Solomon Creek is a tributary of the Susquehanna River in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, in the United States. It is approximately long and flows through Fairview Township, Hanover Township, and Wilkes-Barre. The creek is affected by acid mine d ...

in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, in the United States. It is approximately long and flows through Hanover Township, Sugar Notch, and

Ashley Ashley is a place name derived from the Old English words '' æsc'' (“ash”) and '' lēah'' (“meadow”). It may refer to: People and fictional characters * Ashley (given name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name ...

. The watershed of the stream has an area of . The stream is considered to be impaired by abandoned mine drainage for its entire length. Brook trout and various macroinvertebrate taxa inhabit portions of the stream and it is designated as a Coldwater Fishery. Coal mining has historically been done in the watershed and a small intake dam was on the stream in the early 1900s. Recreational opportunities in the watershed include the Sugar Notch Trail System and Pennsylvania State Game Lands Number 207.

Course

Sugar Notch Run begins on Wilkes-Barre Mountain in Hanover Township. It flows west-southwest for several tenths of a mile before turning north, passing through the valley of Sugar Notch and crossing Interstate 81. After several tenths of a mile, the stream briefly passes through the community of Sugar Notch before reentering Hanover Township and turns northeast. After a few tenths of a mile, it turns north-northeast, crossing Pennsylvania Route 29. The stream then turns north-northeast before turning north and entering the community of Ashley. In Ashley, it meanders north for some distance before reaching its confluence with Solomon Creek. Sugar Notch Run joins Solomon Creek upstream of its mouth.

Hydrology

Sugar Notch Run 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 for its entire length. The source of the impairment is acid mine drainage and the cause of the impairment is flow alteration. The stream also has high levels of

suspended solids Suspended solids refers to small solid particles which remain in suspension in water as a colloid or due to motion of the water. Suspended solids can be removed by sedimentation if their size or density is comparatively large, or by filtration. It ...

and a low pH. The stream is also impaired by

urban runoff Urban runoff is surface runoff of rainwater, landscape irrigation, and car washing created by urbanization. Impervious surfaces (roads, parking lots and sidewalks) are constructed during land development. During rain , storms and other precipit ...

and

storm sewer A storm drain, storm sewer (United Kingdom, U.S. and Canada), surface water drain/sewer (United Kingdom), or stormwater drain ( Australia and New Zealand) is infrastructure designed to drain excess rain and ground water from impervious surface ...

s. It experiences pollution including the dumping of trash and tires, as well as various other artificial blockages of the stream channel. It is also affected by woody debris and sedimentation, as well as undercut streambanks. 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 Sugar Notch Run is 1.17 million gallons per day. The water temperature at five points on the stream has been measured as being between . The pH ranges from 4.5 to 7.0 at these sites, half of which have pHs of under 6 and two have pHs under 5. These two sites are the only places in the watershed of Solomon Creek that are too acidic to support aquatic life. The minimum concentration of dissolved oxygen in the stream is 0 milligrams per liter, which occurs at two sites. The maximum concentration is 9 milligrams per liter. The concentration of

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 ...

in the waters of Sugar Notch Run is 0.44 milligrams per liter and the load is per day. It requires no reduction to meet its total maximum daily load requirements. The concentration 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 ...

in the stream is 0.50 milligrams per liter and the load is per day. It requires a 50 percent reduction to meet its total maximum daily load requirements. The concentration 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 the stream is 1.28 milligrams per liter and the daily load of it is . It requires an 87 percent reduction to meet its total maximum daily load requirements. The acidity concentration in the waters of Sugar Notch Run is 30.96 milligrams per liter and the daily load is . It requires a 70 percent reduction to meet its total maximum daily load requirements. The alkalinity concentration of the stream is 29.56 milligrams per liter and the daily load is .

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 Sugar Notch Run 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 stream's source is between above sea level. Sugar Notch Run loses some of its flow to subterranean mine pools. The cracks in its

streambed A stream bed or streambed is the bottom of a stream or river (bathymetry) or the physical confine of the normal water flow (channel). The lateral confines or channel margins are known as the stream banks or river banks, during all but flood st ...

can be up to wide. In the stream's watershed, there are some cropfalls hundreds of feet deep lead into underground mine workings. In the early 1900s, there was a small

intake dam An intake (also inlet) is an opening, structure or system through which a fluid is admitted to a space or machine as a consequence of a pressure differential between the outside and the inside. The pressure difference may be generated on the ins ...

on Sugar Notch Run approximately upstream of the Sugar Notch borough line. The dam is at an elevation of and drains an area of . It has a capacity of 20,000 gallons or less. The dam was made of

concrete Concrete is a composite material composed of fine and coarse aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement (cement paste) that hardens (cures) over time. Concrete is the second-most-used substance in the world after water, and is the most wi ...

and masonry and had a height of . The valley of Sugar Notch is in the vicinity of Sugar Notch Run. Red

shale Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock formed from mud that is a mix of flakes of clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4) and tiny fragments (silt-sized particles) of other minerals, especial ...

siltstone Siltstone, also known as aleurolite, is a clastic sedimentary rock that is composed mostly of silt. It is a form of mudrock with a low clay mineral content, which can be distinguished from shale by its lack of fissility.Blatt ''et al.'' 1980, p ...

, 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) ...

of the Mauch Chunk Formation occurs there. The

Llewellyn Formation The Llewellyn Formation is a mapped bedrock unit in eastern Pennsylvania. It was previously known as the "coal measures" and the post-Pottsville Formation, Pottsville rocks. The formation is named for the community of Llewellyn, Pennsylvania, Llewe ...

also occurs in the stream's watershed.

Coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when dea ...

was historically mined in this formation. The southeastern headwaters of Sugar Notch Run are on Wilkes-Barre Mountain and the southwestern headwaters are on Penobscot Mountain.

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 Sugar Notch Run has an area of . The stream 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 Wilkes-Barre West. There are of streams in the watershed. This is slightly under 13 percent of all the streams in the watershed of Solomon Creek. The headwaters of Sugar Notch Run are in a

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 area. However, the stream flows through abandoned mining lands for a substantial portion of its length. The stream is situated in the western and southwestern parts of the watershed of Solomon Creek. The Hanover Township Youth Recreational Complex, the Preston Hose Company, and the Ashley Fire Hall are all in the watershed of Sugar Notch Run. The pump house that historically fed the

Huber Breaker The Huber Breaker was a coal breaker and landmark located in the borough of Ashley, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. The breaker was built in 1939 to replace the Maxwell Breaker after sustaining damage during a strike in 1937. Run-of-mine coal arriv ...

is also in the watershed.

History and recreation

Sugar Notch Run 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 1188956.

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 Sugar Notch Run. The Lucky Strike Coal Company was found guilty of illegally discharging wastewater into Sugar Notch Run in November 1979. Sugar Notch was listed as an impaired stream in 2004. Pollution along the stream was cleaned up by the Eastern Pennsylvania Coalition for Abandoned Mine Restoration in 2013. A prestressed box beam bridge carrying State Route 2010 over Sugar Notch Run was constructed in 1961. It is long and is situated in Hanover Township. The Sugar Notch Trail System is located in the watershed of Sugar Run. It consists of two trails: the Ridge Top Trail and the Park Access Trail. The former is long and the latter is long. The stream passes through the Greater Hanover Recreation Park. Pennsylvania State Game Lands Number 207 are in the watershed's upper reaches.

Biology

Sugar Notch Run is designated as a Coldwater Fishery.

Brook trout The brook trout (''Salvelinus fontinalis'') is a species of freshwater fish in the char genus ''Salvelinus'' of the salmon family Salmonidae. It is native to Eastern North America in the United States and Canada, but has been introduced elsewhere ...

are common in it both upstream and downstream of Interstate 81. The trout occur upstream of the Hanover Area Recreation Fields. The stream is designated for use by aquatic life. Sugar Notch Run has a riparian buffer in its headwaters. Some sections of Sugar Notch Run are not inhabited by any benthic

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. However, other sections of the stream do have populations of benthic macroinvertebrates, including

mayflies Mayflies (also known as shadflies or fishflies in Canada and the upper Midwestern United States, as Canadian soldiers in the American Great Lakes region, and as up-winged flies in the United Kingdom) are aquatic insects belonging to the orde ...

and taxa from the orders '' Ephemeroptera'', ''

Plecoptera Plecoptera is an order of insects, commonly known as stoneflies. Some 3,500 species are described worldwide, with new species still being discovered. Stoneflies are found worldwide, except Antarctica. Stoneflies are believed to be one of the mo ...

'', and '' Trichoptera''. Cranefly larvae have been observed in the stream.

References

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