Spring 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 drainag ...

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 ...

Luzerne County, Pennsylvania Luzerne County is a County (United States), 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 ...

, in the United States. It is approximately long and flows through

Wilkes-Barre Wilkes-Barre ( or ) is a city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Luzerne County. Located at the center of the Wyoming Valley in Northeastern Pennsylvania, it had a population of 44,328 in the 2020 census. It is the seco ...

and Hanover Township. The watershed of the stream has an area of . The stream is considered to be impaired by abandoned mine drainage. It is designated as a Coldwater Fishery, but is devoid of fish life. However, it does have some macroinvertebrates.

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

was mined in the stream's watershed in the past. At least one bridge crosses the stream.

Course

Spring Run begins in Wilkes-Barre, near

Pennsylvania Route 309 Pennsylvania Route 309 (PA 309) is a state highway that runs for 134 miles (216 km) through eastern Pennsylvania. The route runs from an interchange between PA 611 and Cheltenham Avenue on the border of Philadelphia and Cheltenham Township ...

and nor far from the village of Georgetown. It flows west-southwest for a short distance before turning northwest and then west-southwest again. After a few tenths of a mile, the stream turns southwest for a few tenths of a mile and then turns west. After several tenths of a mile, it turns west-southwest, exiting Wilkes-Barre and entering Hanover Township. The stream then turns south for several hundred feet before turning west and reaching its confluence with Solomon Creek. Spring Run joins Solomon Creek upstream of its mouth.

Tributaries

Spring Run has no named tributaries. However, it does have an unnamed tributary which joins Spring Run at the corner of Blackman Street and New Frederick Street. It also has a tributary known locally as Sulfur Run.

Hydrology

The entire length of Spring 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. The source of the impairment is

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 is ...

and the cause is

metal A metal (from Greek μέταλλον ''métallon'', "mine, quarry, metal") is a material that, when freshly prepared, polished, or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electricity and heat relatively well. Metals are typi ...

s 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 ...

. The abandoned mine drainage in the watershed has caused the stream to have a low pH and 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 ...

. 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 ...

in the waters of Spring Run is 3.30 milligrams per liter and the daily load is . It requires an 87 percent reduction to meet the stream's

total maximum daily load A total maximum daily load (TMDL) is a regulatory term in the U.S. Clean Water Act, describing a plan for restoring impaired waters that identifies the maximum amount of a pollutant that a body of water can receive while still meeting water qual ...

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 u ...

in the stream is 0.36 milligrams per liter and the load is . It requires an 11 percent reduction to meet the stream's total maximum daily load requirements. The

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 h ...

concentration is 0.69 milligrams per liter and the daily load is per day. It requires an 85 percent reduction to meet the stream's total maximum daily load requirements. The concentration of

alkalinity Alkalinity (from ar, القلوي, al-qaly, lit=ashes of the saltwort) is the capacity of water to resist acidification. It should not be confused with basicity, which is an absolute measurement on the pH scale. Alkalinity is the strengt ...

in the waters of Spring Run is 97.5 milligrams per liter. The daily load of it is per day. The pH of the stream ranges from 6.5 to 6.7. 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 Spring Run is 4.66 million gallons per day. However, it is an

intermittent stream Intermittent, temporary or seasonal rivers or streams cease to flow every year or at least twice every five years.(Tzoraki et al., 2007) Such rivers drain large arid and semi-arid areas, covering approximately a third of the earth's surface. ...

, only flowing during storm flows or rainfall. The watershed is mostly dry because the stream loses its flow to mine voids and permeable

stream channel In physical geography, a channel is a type of landform consisting of the outline of a path of relatively shallow and narrow body of water or of other fluids (e.g., lava), most commonly the confine of a river, river delta or strait. The word is ...

s. The peak annual discharge of the stream has a 10 percent chance of reaching 540 cubic feet per second and a 2 percent chance of reaching 1025 cubic feet per second. It has a 1 percent chance of reaching 1325 cubic feet per second and a 0.2 percent chance of reaching 2200 cubic feet per second. The Solomon Creek Coldwater Conservation Plan described Spring Run as "one of the most degraded tributaries assessed in the Solomon Creek watershed".

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 t ...

of Spring 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 standardise ...

. The elevation of the stream'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 ...

is between above sea level. In the

document for Solomon Creek, Spring Run is described as being a small stream. It loses most of its water to underground mine pools. Both

surface mine 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 ...

s and

deep mine This list of deepest mines includes operational and non-operational mines that are at least , which is the depth of Veryovkina Cave, the deepest known natural cave in the world. The depth measurements in this list represent the difference in ele ...

s occur in the watershed of Spring Run. Abandoned mining lands are present in the watershed. A

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 sedime ...

known as Prospect Rock is located near the uppermost reaches of the watershed of Spring Run at an elevation of above sea level and above the Susquehanna River. It is approximately southeast of Public Square in Wilkes-Barre. Prospect Rock is a small and irregularly-shaped rock ledge made of very light grayish

conglomerate Conglomerate or conglomeration may refer to: * Conglomerate (company) * Conglomerate (geology) * Conglomerate (mathematics) In popular culture: * The Conglomerate (American group), a production crew and musical group founded by Busta Rhymes ** C ...

. Nearly all of the

Wyoming Valley The Wyoming Valley is a historic industrialized region of Northeastern Pennsylvania. The region is historically notable for its influence in helping fuel the American Industrial Revolution with its many anthracite coal-mines. As a metropolitan ...

can be seen from the rock.

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 Spring Run has an area of . The mouth of the stream is in 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. However, its source is in the quadrangle of Wilkes-Barre East. There are a total of of streams in the watershed. Most of the watershed of Spring Run drains the northwestern part of

Wilkes-Barre Mountain Wilkes-Barre ( or ) is a city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Luzerne County. Located at the center of the Wyoming Valley in Northeastern Pennsylvania, it had a population of 44,328 in the 2020 census. It is the ...

as well as the communities of

Georgetown Georgetown or George Town may refer to: Places Africa *George, South Africa, formerly known as Georgetown * Janjanbureh, Gambia, formerly known as Georgetown *Georgetown, Ascension Island, main settlement of the British territory of Ascension Isl ...

, Laurel Run, and Wilkes-Barre Township. The stream is one source 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 in Hanover Township.

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 ...

pass through the watershed of Spring Run in an east-to-west direction. A tract of

Pinchot State Forest Pinchot State Forest is a Pennsylvania State Forest in Pennsylvania Bureau of Forestry District #11. The main offices are located in Lackawanna State Park in North Abington Township in Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania, in the United States. Th ...

is in the stream's watershed. Spring Run and its watershed are situated in the northeastern part of the watershed of Solomon Creek. The stream's watershed is located immediately to the north of that of Pine Creek, another tributary of Solomon Creek.

History

Spring 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 1188273.

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 watershed of Spring Run. The

Empire Silk Mill An empire is a "political unit" made up of several territories and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the empire (sometimes referred to as the metropole) ex ...

also once operated in the stream's watershed. It is the last standing mill in Wilkes-Barre. A prestressed box beam

bridge A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually somethi ...

carrying South Empire Street over Spring Run was constructed in 1972. It is long. A concrete

culvert A culvert is a structure that channels water past an obstacle or to a subterranean waterway. Typically embedded so as to be surrounded by soil, a culvert may be made from a pipe, reinforced concrete or other material. In the United Kingdo ...

bridge carrying McLean Street over the stream was constructed in 1991. It is long.

Biology

Spring Run is considered to be a Coldwater Fishery. However, no

trout Trout are species of freshwater fish belonging to the genera '' Oncorhynchus'', '' Salmo'' and '' Salvelinus'', all of the subfamily Salmoninae of the family Salmonidae. The word ''trout'' is also used as part of the name of some non-sa ...

inhabit the stream. Twenty percent of the

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 ...

taxa inhabiting Spring Run are of 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 mos ...

'', and ''

Trichoptera The caddisflies, or order Trichoptera, are a group of insects with aquatic larvae and terrestrial adults. There are approximately 14,500 described species, most of which can be divided into the suborders Integripalpia and Annulipalpia on the ...

''. None of the taxa are

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 order ...

References

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