Coal Brook 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 ...

of the

Lackawanna River The Lackawanna River 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 Northeastern Pennsylvania. It flows through a region of t ...

Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania Lackawanna County (; ) is a County (United States), county in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It had a population of 215,615 in 2022. Its county seat and most populous city is Scranton, Pennsylvania, Scranton. The c ...

, in the United States. It is approximately long and flows through Fell Township and Carbondale. The watershed of the stream has an area of . The stream experiences flow loss and is impaired by flow alterations and metals. Most of its length is heavily impacted by past mining and the lower reaches are in an underground culvert. The Coal Brook Colliery was historically in the stream's watershed. Coal Brook is a first-order stream and is designated as a Coldwater Fishery and a Migratory Fishery.

Course

Coal Brook begins on a mountain in Fell Township. It flows south-southeast for several tenths of a mile before turning east for several hundred feet. The stream then turns south for approximately a mile before entering Carbondale. At this point, it turns southeast. A few tenths of a mile further downstream, it reaches its confluence with the Lackawanna River. Coal Book joins the Lackawanna River upriver of its mouth.

Hydrology

Coal Brook is designated as an impaired stream. The causes of the impairment are flow alterations and metals. The likely source of the impairment is abandoned mine drainage. Coal Brook experiences total flow loss. In the 1990s, the stream has "very low flow". However, a comprehensive restoration project could restore flow and a natural channel to Coal Brook. In October 2000, stream flow disappeared in a reach upstream of Dundaff Road.

Stormwater Stormwater, also written storm water, is water that originates from precipitation (storm), including heavy rain and meltwater from hail and snow. Stormwater can soak into the soil ( infiltrate) and become groundwater, be stored on depressed lan ...

pipes from Carbondale drain into Coal Brook in the reach where it flows through an underground culvert. Leaking sewer pipes also drain into the stream in this reach. In the early 1900s, the mouth of the stream was free of culm. However, its flow was colored white by

sulfur Sulfur ( American spelling and the preferred IUPAC name) or sulphur ( Commonwealth spelling) is a chemical element; it has symbol S and atomic number 16. It is abundant, multivalent and nonmetallic. Under normal conditions, sulfur atoms ...

-contaminated water from the Coal Brook Colliery. A stream of mine water entered the stream at one point and culm banks in its vicinity were subject to wash. Nevertheless, its upper reaches were clear.

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 Coal Brook 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. Coal Brook flows through

coal mining Coal mining is the process of resource extraction, extracting coal from the ground or from a mine. Coal is valued for its Energy value of coal, energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to Electricity generation, generate electr ...

lands. Only the uppermost of its length have avoided being impacted; they are above the coal measures. From Dundaff Road to a point downstream, the stream flows through areas of culm, waste rock, and strip pits from the old Coal Brook Colliery. Small

bog A bog or bogland is a wetland that accumulates peat as a deposit of dead plant materials often mosses, typically sphagnum moss. It is one of the four main types of wetlands. Other names for bogs include mire, mosses, quagmire, and musk ...

pond A pond is a small, still, land-based body of water formed by pooling inside a depression (geology), depression, either naturally or artificiality, artificially. A pond is smaller than a lake and there are no official criteria distinguishing ...

s, and

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 ...

s are in the stream's watershed. Its headwaters are in mountain springs. Upon reaching the Carbondale Nursing Home, Coal Brook enters an underground

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 (fluid conveyance), pipe, reinforced concrete or other materia ...

. Its course is not exactly known in this reach. However, it discharges into the Lackawanna River via a pipe. Some reaches of Coal Brook have been entirely destroyed either by historic mining or by post-mining development. Additionally, substantial deposits of culm and

silt Silt is granular material of a size between sand and clay and composed mostly of broken grains of quartz. Silt may occur as a soil (often mixed with sand or clay) or as sediment mixed in suspension (chemistry), suspension with water. Silt usually ...

s from mining operations line occur in the stream's vicinity. The stream does not run through drift, but rather through solid rock. Its course is largely determined by the rocks' structure.

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 Coal Brook 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 Waymart. However, its source is in the quadrangle of Carbondale. Coal Brook is a first-order stream. Dundaff Road is slightly to the east of its headwaters.

History

Coal Brook 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 1172047. The Coal Brook Colliery historically operated in the watershed of Coal Brook. It was owned by the Delaware and Hudson Coal Company. In a reach of Coal Brook upstream of Dundaff Road, the Bureau of Abandoned Mine Reclamation once completed a reclamation project, filling stripping pits and regrading waste rock. In the early 2000s, the Lackawanna River Watershed Conservation Plan also recommended that Carbondale Township and Carbondale include protection of Coal Brook in their comprehensive plans, as well as their ordinances for land use, zoning, and subdivision. The stream is on the Watershed Restoration Priority List of the Lackawanna River Corridor Association.

Biology

The drainage basin of Coal Brook is designated as a Coldwater Fishery and a Migratory Fishery. As of the early 1990s, no

macroinvertebrate Invertebrates are animals that neither develop nor retain a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''spine'' or ''backbone''), which evolved from the notochord. It is a paraphyletic grouping including all animals excluding the chordate subphylum V ...

s inhabit the stream. At the headwaters of Coal Brook, the stream has a substantial

riparian buffer A riparian buffer or stream buffer is a vegetated area (a " buffer strip") near a stream, usually forested, which helps shade and partially protect the stream from the impact of adjacent land uses. It plays a key role in increasing water quality ...

consisting of

native Native may refer to: People * '' Jus sanguinis'', nationality by blood * '' Jus soli'', nationality by location of birth * Indigenous peoples, peoples with a set of specific rights based on their historical ties to a particular territory ** Nat ...

trees and

understory In forestry and ecology, understory (American English), or understorey (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English), also known as underbrush or undergrowth, includes plant life growing beneath the Canopy (biology), forest ca ...

. However, some logging has occurred in its vicinity. Further downstream, successional and invasive vegetation occurs along the

stream channel In physical geography and hydrology, a channel is a landform on which a relatively narrow body of water is situated, such as a river, river delta or strait. While ''channel'' typically refers to a natural formation, the cognate term ''canal'' de ...

References

{{authority control Rivers of Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania Tributaries of the Lackawanna River Rivers of Pennsylvania