Lower Little Swatara Creek 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 ...

Swatara Creek Swatara Creek (nicknamed the Swatty) 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 east-central Pennsylvania in the United S ...

in southern

Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania Schuylkill County (, ; Pennsylvania Dutch language, Pennsylvania Dutch: Schulkill Kaundi) is a County (United States), county in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the ...

, US. The creek is long. The creek starts on Blue Mountain and flows west-southwest into Swatara Creek near the community of Pine Grove. Fishing and canoeing are the primary recreational activities on the creek. Significant amounts of

phosphorus Phosphorus is a chemical element; it has Chemical symbol, symbol P and atomic number 15. All elemental forms of phosphorus are highly Reactivity (chemistry), reactive and are therefore never found in nature. They can nevertheless be prepared ar ...

and

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 ...

flow through the creek.

Course

Lower Little Swatara Creek starts on the northern slopes of Blue Mountain in Wayne Township, near the Schuylkill/ Berks county line. The creek flows northwest to the community of Moyers, at which point it turns west-southwest into Washington Township. As the creek enters Washington Township, parallels Blue Mountain, as well as briefly paralleling Summer Hill. It picks up two tributaries from the south, then one from the northeast, then one each from the south and north. The creek's valley gets wider as it flows out of Washington Township and into Pine Grove Township. As it enters the township, it flows between Swope Mountain to the south and Swatara Hill to the north. The creek passes by the communities of Marstown and Crowtown, as well as a

sewage disposal Sewage treatment is a type of wastewater treatment which aims to remove contaminants from sewage to produce an effluent that is suitable to discharge to the surrounding environment or an intended reuse application, thereby preventing water p ...

station. At this point, the creek empties into Swatara Creek.

Tributaries

Lower Little Swatara Creek has several tributaries. Three of them are unnamed.

Geography

Lower Little Swatara Creek is in the

ridge and valley The Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians, also called the Ridge and Valley Province or the Valley and Ridge Appalachians, are a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian Highlands division. The physiographic province is divided into three sec ...

province's Appalachian Mountain Section. The headwaters of Lower Little Swatara Creek are higher in elevation than its mouth.

Geology

The

Shawangunk Formation The Silurian Shawangunk Formation is a mapped bedrock unit in eastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York. It is named for the Shawangunk Ridge for which it is the dominant rock type. The division of the Shawangunk between the Tuscarora For ...

is one of the main types of

rock formation A rock formation is an isolated, scenic, or spectacular surface rock (geology), rock outcrop. Rock formations are usually the result of weathering and erosion sculpting the existing rock. The term ''rock Geological formation, formation ...

s in the Lower Little Swatara Creek watershed. This formation occurs in the southern part of the watershed, on Blue Mountain. Slightly further north is the

Bloomsburg Formation The Silurian Bloomsburg Formation is a mapped bedrock unit in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and Maryland. It is named for the town of Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, in which it was first described. The Bloomsburg marked the first occurrence of red ...

, which occupies the northern edge of Blue Mountain. The Hamilton Group is north of the Bloomsburg Formation. The Hamilton Group occupies the central region of the watershed, including the Lower Little Swatara Creek valley. The

Trimmers Rock Formation Trimmer may refer to: * Trimmer (construction), beam used in construction * Trimmer (electronics), small electrical component * Trimmer (gardening), gardening power tool * Trimmer (surname) * Trimmer, California, community in Fresno County * ...

is another formation in the creek's watershed. It occupies the area north of Lower Little Swatara Creek itself. A rock formation known as the Walcksville and Towanmensing Member occurs in a small band north of the Trimmers Rock Formation. The Beaverdam Run Member formation occurs on the edges of the watershed of the largest tributary of the creek. The Long Run Member formation occurs around this creek itself. There are several main types of

soil Soil, also commonly referred to as earth, is a mixture of organic matter, minerals, gases, water, and organisms that together support the life of plants and soil organisms. Some scientific definitions distinguish dirt from ''soil'' by re ...

in the Lower Little Swatara Creek watershed. They are the Berks-Weikert-Beddington, the Leck Kill-Minersville-Calvin, and the Hazleton-Dechaub-Buchanon. The Hazleton-Dechaub-Buchanon soil occurs in most of the southern part of the watershed. The Leck Kill-Minersville-Calvin soil occurs in the east-central part of the watershed, including the upper part of the Lower Little Swatara Creek valley, and also the northeastern corner. The Berks-Weikert-Beddington occurs in the lower part of the creek's valley, as well as most of the watershed north of the valley.

Watershed

Lower Little Swatara Creek has a watershed that is 34 square miles in area. 64% of the land in the watershed is agricultural land. 29% of the land is covered by

forest A forest is an ecosystem characterized by a dense ecological community, community of trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, ...

and 7% of the land is developed. In particular, the watershed of Lower Little Swatara Creek contains 2901 acres of

hay Hay is grass, legumes, or other herbaceous plants that have been cut and dried to be stored for use as animal fodder, either for large grazing animals raised as livestock, such as cattle, horses, goats, and sheep, or for smaller domesticate ...

pasture Pasture (from the Latin ''pastus'', past participle of ''pascere'', "to feed") is land used for grazing. Types of pasture Pasture lands in the narrow sense are enclosed tracts of farmland, grazed by domesticated livestock, such as horses, c ...

s. The watershed contains 1378.8 acres of cropland and 1912.6 acres of forest. There are 430 acres of low-intensity development, 37.1 acres of land in transition, and 4.9 acres 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 ...

Hydrology

The amount of

flowing through Lower Little Swatara Creek is per day. This is approximately 1.89 times the

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 qualit ...

for the creek. The amount of

flowing through Lower Little Swatara Creek is per day. This is approximately 1.78 times the total maximum daily load. Out of the sediment that flows through Lower Little Swatara Creek, per day comes from agricultural land. per day comes from streambanks, per day comes from pastures and similar land, and per day comes from developed land. A total of per day comes from forests. Out of the phosphorus that flows through Lower Little Swatara Creek, per day comes from agricultural land. comes from pastures and similar land. per day comes from

groundwater Groundwater is the water present beneath Earth's surface in rock and Pore space in soil, soil pore spaces and in the fractures of stratum, rock formations. About 30 percent of all readily available fresh water in the world is groundwater. A unit ...

, per day comes from developed land, and per day comes from

septic system Onsite sewage facilities (OSSF), also called septic systems, are wastewater systems designed to treat and dispose of effluent on the same property that produces the wastewater, in areas not served by public sewage infrastructure. A septic tank a ...

s. A total of per day comes from forests, comes from streambanks, and per day comes from wetlands. In Lower Little Swatara Creek, dissolved phosphorus makes up 25% to 33% of the total phosphorus concentration and phosphorus in sediment makes up 67% to 75%, as of 1985. Lower Little Swatara Creek's outflow into Swatara Creek helps dilute

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 ...

in Swatara Creek. The maximum 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 ...

in the waters of Lower Little Swatara Creek 670 micrograms per liter, as of 1985. The

median The median of a set of numbers is the value separating the higher half from the lower half of a Sample (statistics), data sample, a statistical population, population, or a probability distribution. For a data set, it may be thought of as the “ ...

concentration of

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 ...

in the waters of the creek was 850 micrograms per liter as of 1985. The concentration of dissolved iron in the creek near Pine Grove was 85 micrograms per liter.

History and name

"Swatara" comes from a

Susquehannock The Susquehannock, also known as the Conestoga, Minquas, and Andaste, were an Iroquoian Peoples, Iroquoian people who lived in the lower Susquehanna River watershed in what is now Pennsylvania. Their name means “people of the muddy river.” T ...

word, ''Swahadowry'' or ''Schaha-dawa'', which means "where we feed on eels". Ancient Native Americans built dozens of eel-

weir A weir or low-head dam is a barrier across the width of a river that alters the flow characteristics of water and usually results in a change in the height of the water level. Weirs are also used to control the flow of water for outlets of l ...

s, V-shaped rock barriers designed to funnel eels to facilitate capture, on the

Susquehanna River The Susquehanna River ( ; Unami language, Lenape: ) is a major river located in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, crossing three lower Northeastern United States, Northeast states (New York, Pennsylvani ...

and its tributaries. There was a

gauging station A stream gauge, streamgage or stream gauging station is a location used by hydrologists or environmental scientists to monitor and test terrestrial bodies of water. Hydrometric measurements of water level surface elevation ("stage") and/or vo ...

on Lower Little Swatara Creek from 1936 to 1953. 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 ...

conducted a public

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 qualit ...

meeting for Lower Little Swatara Creek for the first time on June 16, 2010, making it one of the first public TMDL meetings in the state.

Recreation

It is possible to navigate Lower Little Swatara Creek in a

canoe A canoe is a lightweight, narrow watercraft, water vessel, typically pointed at both ends and open on top, propelled by one or more seated or kneeling paddlers facing the direction of travel and using paddles. In British English, the term ' ...

. 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 ...

also

stocks Stocks are feet and hand restraining devices that were used as a form of corporal punishment and public humiliation. The use of stocks is seen as early as Ancient Greece, where they are described as being in use in Solon's law code. The law de ...

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 ...

in some areas of the creek. Public

fishing Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment (Freshwater ecosystem, freshwater or Marine ecosystem, marine), but may also be caught from Fish stocking, stocked Body of water, ...

is permitted on the creek.

References

{{authority control Tributaries of Swatara Creek Rivers of Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania Rivers of Pennsylvania