Drury Run (also known as Drury's Run) is a tributary of the

West Branch Susquehanna River The West Branch Susquehanna River is one of the two principal branches, along with the North Branch, of the Susquehanna River in the Northeastern United States. The North Branch, which rises in upstate New York, is generally regarded as the ex ...

Clinton County Clinton County may refer to: *Counties named for George Clinton, first and third Governor of New York, and later the fourth Vice President of the United States: **Clinton County, New York ** Clinton County, Ohio *Counties named for DeWitt Clinton, ...

, Pennsylvania, in the United States. It is long and its watershed is 11.5 square miles in area, most of which is forest. The stream's tributaries are affected by

acid mine drainage Acid mine drainage, acid and metalliferous drainage (AMD), or acid rock drainage (ARD) is the outflow of acidic water from metal mines and coal mines. Acid rock drainage occurs naturally within some environments as part of the rock weatherin ...

, as are the lower reaches of the stream itself. It begins in

Tamarack Swamp Tamarack Swamp Natural Area is a boreal (non-glacial) bog in Sproul State Forest, in Clinton County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is named for the tamarack tree that is common in the surrounding wetland. The protected natural area consis ...

and flows through Leidy Township, Noyes Township, and Renovo.

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 ...

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 ...

creek chub ''Semotilus'' is the genus of creek chubs, ray-finned fish in the family Leuciscidae. The term "creek chub" is sometimes used for individual species, particularly the common creek chub, ''S. atromaculatus''. The creek chub species of minnows can ...

, and

eastern blacknose dace Eastern blacknose dace (''Rhinichthys atratulus'') is a species of ray-finned fish in the genus '' Rhinichthys''. Its name originates from the Old French word "dars" which is the nominative form of the word "dart" in reference to their swimming pa ...

all inhabit the stream.

Course

Drury Run begins in the Tamarack Swamp, near the community of

Tamarack ''Larix laricina'', commonly known as the tamarack, hackmatack, eastern larch, black larch, red larch, or American larch, is a species of larch native to Canada, from eastern Yukon and Inuvik, Northwest Territories east to Newfoundland, and als ...

, in Leidy Township. The stream begins flowing southwards, following Pennsylvania Route 144. It passes Cove Hollow, Cal Hollow, Pong Hollow, and Jordan Hollow over the next several miles. It then flows into a valley which gradually gets deeper and narrower. In the southern part of Leidy Township, it picks up the tributaries Sandy Run and Woodley Draft and the stream bends southeast. At the southern border of the township, it flows through the Renovo Reservoir and enters Noyes Township, continuing southeast past abandoned strip mines. It picks up the tributary Stony Run before entering the West Branch Susquehanna River on the western edge of Renovo.

Tributaries

The named tributaries of Drury Run, proceeding downstream, are Sandy Run, Woodley Draft, Whiskey Run, and Stony Run. The Sandy Run sub-watershed has an area of and of streams. The Woodley Draft sub-watershed has an area of and of streams. Whiskey Run is not named in gazetteers or official lists of streams; it consists of acid mine water discharging from a mine pool. The Stony Run sub-watershed has an area of .

Hydrology

The pH of Drury Run ranges from 5.3 to 5.8 at a site downstream of Tamarack Swamp. At the mouth of Stony Run, the concentration of

aluminum Aluminium (or aluminum in North American English) is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol Al and atomic number 13. It has a density lower than that of other common metals, about one-third that of steel. Aluminium has ...

in the water is 7.11 milligrams per liter and there is a daily load of . The

iron Iron is a chemical element; it has symbol Fe () 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, forming much of Earth's o ...

concentration is 0.29 milligrams per liter and the load of this metal is per day. The concentration of

manganese Manganese is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Mn and atomic number 25. It is a hard, brittle, silvery metal, often found in minerals in combination with iron. Manganese was first isolated in the 1770s. It is a transition m ...

is 11.81 milligrams per liter, with a daily load of . The acidity concentration is 67.35 milligrams per liter and the

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 ...

concentration is 2.77 milligrams per liter. The daily loads are and , respectively. At its confluence with Drury Run, Whiskey Run has an aluminum concentration of 11.09 milligrams per liter and the daily load of aluminum is . The iron concentration is 5.3 milligrams per liter and of iron flows through the stream each day. The concentration of manganese is 11.81 milligrams per liter and the daily load of manganese is . The acidity concentration is 73 milligrams per liter and the alkalinity concentration is 0.83 milligrams per liter. The daily loads of these are and , respectively. To meet the

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an independent agency of the United States government tasked with environmental protection matters. President Richard Nixon proposed the establishment of EPA on July 9, 1970; it began operation on De ...

's maximum allowable load requirements, the acidity load would need to be reduced by 99.5%. The total daily load of acid mine drainage in the watershed is per day. The concentration of

sulfate The sulfate or sulphate ion is a polyatomic anion with the empirical formula . Salts, acid derivatives, and peroxides of sulfate are widely used in industry. Sulfates occur widely in everyday life. Sulfates are salts of sulfuric acid and many ...

s at the stream's headwaters is 5.8 milligrams per liter, but at the mouth the concentration is 67 milligrams per liter. The concentration of sulfates at the mouth of the tributary Stony Run is 271 milligrams per liter. As is typical for streams that begin in a

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 ...

, the first of Drury Run, near Tamarack Swamp, is stained brown from

tannin Tannins (or tannoids) are a class of astringent, polyphenolic biomolecules that bind to and Precipitation (chemistry), precipitate proteins and various other organic compounds including amino acids and alkaloids. The term ''tannin'' is widel ...

in the stream. The presence of tannin causes the waters in the upper part of the stream to be slightly acidic. There is a high concentration of dissolved organic compounds in the stream. Drury Run experiences

, mostly in the final . The tributary Stony Run is the most affected by acid mine drainage of all the tributaries of the stream. In 1990, the discharge of Drury Run upstream of Sandy Run's confluence with it ranged from per minute.

Watershed and geology

The watershed of Drury Run is located in Clinton County. It is 11.5 square miles in area. The watershed is underlain by Pennsylvanian age

sedimentary rock Sedimentary rocks are types of rock (geology), rock formed by the cementation (geology), cementation of sediments—i.e. particles made of minerals (geological detritus) or organic matter (biological detritus)—that have been accumulated or de ...

s of the Pottsville and Allegheny Formations. The Clarion, Lower Kittanning, and Mercer

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 Chemical element, elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal i ...

s are all found in the watershed. A number of abandoned mines are located in the southern part of the watershed. The watershed is mostly forested.

History

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, aqua ...

was built on Drury Run in the 1800s and was replaced shortly before 1911. The first school in the community of Renovo was built at the mouth of the stream in 1864. In 1915, the population of the Drury Run watershed was 47. Around this time, the stream, along with Paddy's Run, was suspected of being the source of a

typhoid fever Typhoid fever, also known simply as typhoid, is a disease caused by '' Salmonella enterica'' serotype Typhi bacteria, also called ''Salmonella'' Typhi. Symptoms vary from mild to severe, and usually begin six to 30 days after exposure. Often th ...

outbreak, but it was determined that the streams were not the source of the outbreak. Up until 1915, the Renovo Water Company used the stream as its water supply. Coal mining and clay mining has been done in the watersheds of all four of the named tributaries of Drury Run. Underground mining of coal and clay in the Drury Run watershed began in the late 1800s and went on until 1940.

Surface mining 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 whic ...

in the watershed was done between the 1940s and the 1980s.

Biology

Drury Run is a high-quality trout stream from its source at Tamarack Swamp to the mouth of Woodley Draft. Downstream of Woodley Draft, it still supports fish, but is also impaired by acid mine drainage.

and

live and reproduce in the reaches of the stream that are relatively unaffected by acid mine drainage, but there are no fish in reaches that are significantly affected by mine drainage.

Creek chub ''Semotilus'' is the genus of creek chubs, ray-finned fish in the family Leuciscidae. The term "creek chub" is sometimes used for individual species, particularly the common creek chub, ''S. atromaculatus''. The creek chub species of minnows can ...

and

also live in the stream. The tributary Stony Run is completely devoid of fish. Upstream from acid mine inflows, Drury Creek and its tributaries have healthy

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 ...

communities. They exhibit high species diversity, with

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 ...

(an acid-intolerant group) making up more than 40 percent of the macroinvertebrate population. Below the mouth of Sandy Run, the population of

on Drury Run decreases significantly, with acid-resistant

stoneflies 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 most ...

the most significant

s in the stream. Downstream of Woodley Draft and Whiskey Run, there is less macroinvertebrate diversity in Drury Run, with mayflies making up 2% of the macroinvertebrates. At the mouth the mayfly population makes up under 1% of the macroinvertebrates. Sandy Run is the only tributary with a mayfly population.

References

{{authority control Tributaries of the West Branch Susquehanna River Rivers of Clinton County, Pennsylvania Rivers of Pennsylvania