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

Susquehanna River The Susquehanna River (; Lenape: Siskëwahane) is a major river located in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, overlapping between the lower Northeast and the Upland South. At long, it is the longest river on the East Coast of the ...

Northumberland County, Pennsylvania Northumberland County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is part of Northeastern Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 91,647. Its county seat is Sunbury. The county was formed in 1772 from parts of Lancast ...

, in the United States. It is approximately long and flows through Rush Township and the borough of Riverside. Wilson Run is a tributary of the stream. Kipps Run has an annual

sediment Sediment is a naturally occurring material that is broken down by processes of weathering and erosion, and is subsequently transported by the action of wind, water, or ice or by the force of gravity acting on the particles. For example, sa ...

load of , most of which comes from cropland. The stream's watershed has an area of 6.38 square miles, nearly all of which is agricultural or forested land. The stream has a

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 ...

Course

Kipps Run begins in northern Rush Township. The stream's headwaters are on Blue Hill. The stream begins flowing southwest and then northwest in a valley, but after a short distance curves north, following the road. It then exits Rush Township and enters the community of Riverside, where it turns west-northwest, away from the road. The stream also leaves its valley at this point. It receives the tributary Wilson Run from the left and then passes through a series of small

pond A pond is an area filled with water, either natural or Artificiality, artificial, that is smaller than a lake. Defining them to be less than in area, less than deep, and with less than 30% Aquatic plant, emergent vegetation helps in disting ...

s. Further downstream, it turns northwest, crossing another road and then crossing the

Delaware and Hudson Railroad The Delaware and Hudson Railway (D&H) is a railroad that operates in the Northeastern United States. In 1991, after more than 150 years as an independent railroad, the D&H was purchased by the Canadian Pacific Railway (CP). CP operates D&H ...

. Immediately afterwards, the stream enters the Susquehanna River. Kipps Run joins the Susquehanna River upstream of its mouth.

Tributaries

The only named tributary of Kipps Run is Wilson Run. Wilson Run is on the western side of the

main stem In hydrology, a mainstem (or trunk) is "the primary downstream segment of a river, as contrasted to its tributaries". Water enters the mainstem from the river's drainage basin, the land area through which the mainstem and its tributaries flow.. ...

. It joins Kipps Run upstream of its mouth and its watershed has an area of 3.27 square miles.

Hydrology

The annual load of

in Kipps Run is . The largest contributor is cropland, which contributes to the stream.

Stream bank In geography Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth description") is a field of science devoted to the study of the lands, fea ...

s contribute of sediment per year and of it comes from hay and pastures. Forested land contributes per year, comes from land designated 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. ...

as "low-intensity development", and comes from land designated by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection as "transitional".

Geography, geology, and climate

80 percent of the rock in the watershed of Kipps Run is

interbedded In geology, interbedding occurs when beds (layers of rock) of a particular lithology lie between or alternate with beds of a different lithology. For example, sedimentary rocks may be interbedded if there were sea level variations in their sedimen ...

sedimentary rock Sedimentary rocks are types of rock that are formed by the accumulation or deposition of mineral or organic particles at Earth's surface, followed by cementation. Sedimentation is the collective name for processes that cause these particle ...

and 20 percent is

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 ...

. 80 percent of the soils in the watershed of the stream belong to the hydrologic soil group C. The remaining 20 percent belong to the hydrologic soil group B. The geology of the watershed does not influence the water quality of the stream in any significant way. The topography of the land around Kipps Run varies by direction. To the east of the stream is a bowl-shaped topographical feature in which the community of Riverside is located. To the west of it and to the south of Sunbury Road, there is a steep rise climbing to more than above sea level. To the west of the stream and to the north of Sunbury Road, the terrain is largely flat. The stream has an elevation of 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 ...

near its mouth. The comprehensive plan for Riverside describes the channel of Kipps run as "adequate". The average annual amount of precipitation in the watershed of Kipps Run is per year. The average annual amount of runoff is per year.

Watershed

The watershed of Kipps Run has an area of 6.38 square miles. 48 percent of the watershed's area is agricultural land and 48 percent is forested land. There are 1099.6 acres of cropland and 617.8 acres of hay and pastures in the watershed. The remaining 4 percent has other uses, such as "low-intensity development", of which there are 175.4 acres in the watershed and "transitional" land, of which there are 7.4 acres in the watershed. In the area that is to the west of Kipps Run and to the south of Sunbury Road, there is mostly forested land with some farms on the tops of the hills. North of Sunbury Road and west of the stream, there are large tracts of farmland. Kipps Run is one of the main streams in Riverside, according to the comprehensive plan for the borough.

History and recreation

In 1790, William Gearhart settled near in Northumberland County and gained possession of a tract of land near Kipps Run. Alem Marr Sechler purchased a farm along Kipps Run in 1854. In the late 1800s, the Danville, Hazleton and Wilkes-Barre Railroad passed by Kipps Run. During a

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 ...

in 1904, a gorge in the watershed of Kipps Run helped stop the flooding from affecting areas downstream of Subnbury for several days. The Kipp's Run Swim Club is located in a developed area south of Kipps Run and has been since at least 1962. In the late 1960s, the borough of Riverside had plans to build a

pumping station Pumping stations, also called pumphouses in situations such as drilled wells and drinking water, are facilities containing pumps and equipment for pumping fluids from one place to another. They are used for a variety of infrastructure systems, ...

in the vicinity of the stream. In July 2012, Kipps Run was designated as the reference watershed for the

TMDL 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 ...

Deerlick Run Deerlick Run (also known as Deer Lick Run) is a tributary of Fishing Creek in Columbia County, Pennsylvania, in the United States. It is long. The stream flows through Mount Pleasant Township and Orange Township. The annual load of sediment in it ...

Biology

Kipps Run has a sizable

References

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