Balliet Run (also known as Balliet's Run) is a

tributary A tributary, or an ''affluent'', is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream (''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 into which they ...

Big Wapwallopen Creek Big Wapwallopen Creek (also known as Wapwallopen Creek or Big Wap) is a tributary of the Susquehanna River in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, in the United States. It is approximately long and flows through Bear Creek Township, Pennsylvania, B ...

Luzerne County, Pennsylvania Luzerne County is a County (United States), county in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. According to the United States Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which is land and is water. It is Northeaste ...

, in the United States. It is approximately long and flows through Dorrance Township, Hollenback Township, and Butler Township. The watershed of the stream has an area of . The stream itself is fairly small and has two unnamed tributaries. It is considered to be

Class A Wild Trout Waters Class A Wild Trout Waters are the highest biomass class given to streams in Pennsylvania by the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission. They are considered to contain the highest-quality naturally reproducing trout populations in Pennsylvania. The ...

and is inhabited by brook trout and brown trout. Wisconsinan Till, fill, and bedrock consisting of sandstone, conglomerate, and shale occur in the vicinity of the stream.

Course

Balliet Run begins at the base of

Nescopeck Mountain Nescopeck Mountain (also known as Nescopec Mountain) is a ridge in Columbia County, Pennsylvania, Columbia County and Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, Luzerne County, in Pennsylvania, in the United States. Its elevation is above sea level. The ridg ...

, not far from Nescopeck Pass in Dorrance Township. It flows west for a few tenths of a mile, crossing

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 Interstate 40, I-40 in Dandridge, Tennessee, Dandridge, Tennessee; its nort ...

. The stream then turns west-southwest for several tenths of a mile before turning west and slightly south for a few miles along the northern side of Nescopeck Mountain, passing by Springtown along the way. It then turns northwest and away from Nescopeck Mountain for nearly a mile and receives an unnamed tributary from the

right Rights are law, legal, social, or ethics, ethical principles of freedom or Entitlement (fair division), entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people according to some legal sy ...

before turning west-southwest for approximately a mile and exiting Dorrance Township. Upon exiting Dorrance Township, the stream enters Hollenback Township. It turns south for a few tenths of a mile, approaching Nescopeck Mountain again and receiving an unnamed tributary from the

left Left may refer to: Music * ''Left'' (Hope of the States album), 2006 * ''Left'' (Monkey House album), 2016 * ''Left'' (Helmet album), 2023 * "Left", a song by Nickelback from the album ''Curb'', 1996 Direction * Left (direction), the relativ ...

. The stream then turns west and then west-southwest, briefly entering Butler Township before reentering Hollenback Township. It then turns west-northwest for several tenths of a mile before turning southwest and then meandering west for a short distance to its confluence with Big Wapwallopen Creek. Balliet Run joins Big Wapwallopen Creek upstream of its mouth.

Tributaries

Balliet Run has no named tributaries. However, it does have two unnamed tributaries. The first is long and the second is long.

Hydrology

The peak annual discharge of Balliet Run has a 10 percent chance of reaching 780 cubic feet per second. It has a 2 percent chance of reaching 1300 cubic feet per second and 1 percent chance of reaching 1600 cubic feet per second. The stream's peak annual discharge has a 0.2 percent chance of reaching 2250 cubic feet per second. The concentration of

alkalinity Alkalinity (from ) is the capacity of water to resist Freshwater acidification, acidification. It should not be confused with base (chemistry), basicity, which is an absolute measurement on the pH scale. Alkalinity is the strength of a buffer s ...

in the waters of Balliet Run is 11 milligrams per liter. A facility known as the YRC Wilkes Barre Terminal has a permit to discharge

sewage Sewage (or domestic sewage, domestic wastewater, municipal wastewater) is a type of wastewater that is produced by a community of people. It is typically transported through a sewerage, sewer system. Sewage consists of wastewater discharged fro ...

into Balliet Run.

Geography and geology

The elevation near the

mouth A mouth also referred to as the oral is the body orifice through which many animals ingest food and animal communication#Auditory, vocalize. The body cavity immediately behind the mouth opening, known as the oral cavity (or in Latin), is also t ...

of Balliet Run is above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an mean, average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal Body of water, bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical ...

. 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. Balliet Run is a small stream and is said to resemble a mountain stream fed by springs. An article in ''

Times Leader The ''Times Leader'' is a privately owned newspaper in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Founding Founded in 1879, it was locally owned until being purchased by Capital Cities in 1978. Early history On November 27, 1907, the ''Wilkes-Barre Times ...

'' stated that "one gets the feeling that there is something special about the cool, clear water contained within its banks". The stream is on the northern side of Nescopeck Mountain. Most of the upper reaches of Balliet Run are on a glacial or resedimented

till image:Geschiebemergel.JPG, Closeup of glacial till. Note that the larger grains (pebbles and gravel) in the till are completely surrounded by the matrix of finer material (silt and sand), and this characteristic, known as ''matrix support'', is d ...

known as Wisconsinan Till. However, fill is present in some small areas of the watershed, as is

bedrock In geology, bedrock is solid rock that lies under loose material ( regolith) within the crust of Earth or another terrestrial planet. Definition Bedrock is the solid rock that underlies looser surface material. An exposed portion of bed ...

consisting of

sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

, conglomerate, and

shale Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock formed from mud that is a mix of flakes of Clay mineral, clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g., Kaolinite, kaolin, aluminium, Al2Silicon, Si2Oxygen, O5(hydroxide, OH)4) and tiny f ...

Watershed

The

watershed Watershed may refer to: Hydrology * Drainage divide, the line that separates neighbouring drainage basins * Drainage basin, an area of land where surface water converges (North American usage) Music * Watershed Music Festival, an annual country ...

of Balliet Run has an area of . The mouth of the stream is in the

United States Geological Survey The United States Geological Survey (USGS), founded as the Geological Survey, is an agency of the U.S. Department of the Interior whose work spans the disciplines of biology, geography, geology, and hydrology. The agency was founded on Mar ...

quadrangle of Sybertsville. However, the source is in the quadrangle of Freeland. Balliet Run is on

private land Private or privates may refer to: Music * "In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation'' * Private (band), a Denmark-based band * "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorded ...

that is closed to access throughout its entire length. There are of streams in its watershed. There is a patch of

wetland A wetland is a distinct semi-aquatic ecosystem whose groundcovers are flooded or saturated in water, either permanently, for years or decades, or only seasonally. Flooding results in oxygen-poor ( anoxic) processes taking place, especially ...

at the stream's headwaters.

History

Balliet Run was entered into the

Geographic Names Information System The Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) is a database of name and location information about more than two million physical and cultural features, encompassing the United States and its territories; the Compact of Free Association, asso ...

on August 2, 1979. Its identifier in the Geographic Names Information System is 1168669. In the 1980s, a

skeet shooting Skeet shooting is a recreational and competitive activity whose participants use shotguns to attempt to break clay targets which two fixed stations mechanically fling into the air at high speed and at a variety of angles. Skeet is one of the ...

club known as Ashley Skeet Club from the borough of

Ashley Ashley is a place name derived from the Old English words '' æsċ'' (“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 ...

owned a tract of land on Blue Ridge Trail at Balliet Run. Balliet Run was stocked with fish in 1957. However, it was designated as Class A Wild Trout Waters in 2007. In 2013, a 100-acre tract of land on the stream underwent conservation for the area's

bat Bats are flying mammals of the order Chiroptera (). With their forelimbs adapted as wings, they are the only mammals capable of true and sustained flight. Bats are more agile in flight than most birds, flying with their very long spread-out ...

and

trout Trout (: trout) is a generic common name for numerous species of carnivorous freshwater ray-finned fishes belonging to the genera '' Oncorhynchus'', ''Salmo'' and ''Salvelinus'', all of which are members of the subfamily Salmoninae in the ...

populations. In the court case ''Pennsy Supple, Inc. v. Zoning Hearing Board of Dorrance County'', it was alleged that

sediment Sediment is a solid material that is transported to a new location where it is deposited. It occurs naturally and, through the processes of weathering and erosion, is broken down and subsequently sediment transport, transported by the action of ...

from a nearby

quarry A quarry is a type of open-pit mining, open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock (geology), rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some juri ...

was adversely affecting Balliet Run. However, Patrick Bartorillo, president of the Small Mountain Quarry stated that "There will be no impact on wetlands, no impact on Balliet Run and we would enclose all the crushing equipment."

Biology

Balliet Run is inhabited by

brown trout The brown trout (''Salmo trutta'') is a species of salmonid ray-finned fish and the most widely distributed species of the genus ''Salmo'', endemic to most of Europe, West Asia and parts of North Africa, and has been widely introduced globally ...

. The

biomass Biomass is a term used in several contexts: in the context of ecology it means living organisms, and in the context of bioenergy it means matter from recently living (but now dead) organisms. In the latter context, there are variations in how ...

of that species of trout in the stream is 59.73 kilograms per hectare, considerably higher than the minimum of 30 kilograms per hectare that is required for a stream to be designated as Class A Wild Trout Waters. Native

brook trout The brook trout (''Salvelinus fontinalis'') is a species of freshwater fish in the char genus ''Salvelinus'' of the salmon family Salmonidae native to Eastern North America in the United States and Canada. Two ecological forms of brook trout h ...

also inhabit the stream. Balliet Run is considered by the

Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission is an independent state agency responsible for the regulation of all fishing and boating in the state of Pennsylvania within the United States of America. Unlike many U.S. states, Pennsylvania has a sepa ...

to be Class A Wild Trout waters for brown trout from its headwaters to its confluence with Big Wapwallopen Creek. Balliet Run's designated uses are Coldwater Fishery and Migratory Fishery. However, its existing uses are High-Quality Coldwater Fishery and Migratory Fishery.

References

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