McKee Run (also known as McKee Creek) is a

tributary A tributary, or affluent, is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or 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 drain the surrounding drainage ...

County Line Branch County Line Branch (also known as the County Line Branch of Chillisquaque Creek) is a tributary of West Branch Chillisquaque Creek in Northumberland County and Montour County, in Pennsylvania, in the United States. It is approximately long and ...

Montour County, Pennsylvania Montour County is a County (United States), county in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is located in Northeastern Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 18,136. Its count ...

, in the United States. It is approximately long and flows through Anthony Township. The watershed of the stream has an area of . The stream is designated as impaired by siltation and removal of vegetation due to agriculture. Land uses in the watershed include forested land, croplands, and pastures. A number of bridges cross the stream.

Course

McKee Run begins in a valley in Anthony Township. It flows south for several tenths of a mile before turning south-southwest for a short distance and leaving the valley. The stream then turns south again for about a mile before turning southwest for several tenths of a mile. It then turns south for several tenths of a mile and crosses

Pennsylvania Route 44 Pennsylvania Route 44 (PA 44) is a -long state highway in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. The route, which is signed north-south, is designated from Interstate 80 (I-80) and PA 42 in Buckhorn northwest to the New York state line near New York S ...

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", a song by Nickelback from the album ''Curb'', 1996 Direction * Left (direction), the relative direction opposite of right * L ...

before turning southwest. A few tenths of a mile further downstream, it receives an unnamed tributary from the

right Rights are law, legal, social, or ethics, ethical principles of Liberty, freedom or entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people according to some legal system, social convent ...

and turns south-southeast. After several tenths of a mile, the stream reaches its confluence with County Line Branch. McKee Run joins County Line Branch upstream of its mouth.

Tributaries

McKee Run has no named tributaries. However, it does have two unnamed tributaries. These are known as UNT 18829 and UNT 18830.

Hydrology

There are a total of of streams in the watershed of McKee Run. All of these are impaired by

siltation Siltation, is water pollution caused by particulate terrestrial clastic material, with a particle size dominated by silt or clay. It refers both to the increased concentration of suspended sediments and to the increased accumulation (temporary or ...

and removal of vegetation due to agriculture. However, the stream has good

water quality Water quality refers to the chemical, physical, and biological characteristics of water based on the standards of its usage. It is most frequently used by reference to a set of standards against which compliance, generally achieved through tr ...

. The HEC-1 peak 2-year

discharge Discharge may refer to Expel or let go * Discharge, the act of firing a gun * Discharge, or termination of employment, the end of an employee's duration with an employer * Military discharge, the release of a member of the armed forces from serv ...

of McKee Run is . The 5-year peak discharge is , the 10-year peak discharge is , and the 25-year peak discharge is . The 50-year peak discharge of the stream is , the 100-year peak discharge is , and the 500-year peak discharge is .

Geography and geology

The elevation near the

mouth In animal anatomy, the mouth, also known as the oral cavity, or in Latin cavum oris, is the opening through which many animals take in food and issue vocal sounds. It is also the cavity lying at the upper end of the alimentary canal, bounded on ...

of McKee Run is above sea level. 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 o ...

is between above sea level. The width of the

channel Channel, channels, channeling, etc., may refer to: Geography * Channel (geography), in physical geography, a landform consisting of the outline (banks) of the path of a narrow body of water. Australia * Channel Country, region of outback Austral ...

of McKee Run can be as high as or as low as . The bank height is in some reaches. In this area, the stream slope is . The roughness coefficient of the stream's channel at the Pennsylvania Route 44 bridge is 0.045. The watershed of McKee Run contains rolling hills with croplands and pastures, as well as forested mountains. The stream does not experience streambank

erosion Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as water flow or wind) that removes soil, rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust, and then transports it to another location where it is deposited. Erosion is distin ...

near the Pennsylvania Route 44 bridge.

Watershed

The

watershed Watershed is a hydrological term, which has been adopted in other fields in a more or less figurative sense. It may refer to: Hydrology * Drainage divide, the line that separates neighbouring drainage basins * Drainage basin, called a "watershe ...

of McKee Run has an area of . A total of drains into the stream upstream of the Pennsylvania Route 44 bridge. This part of the watershed is irregular in shape. The mouth of the stream is in the

United States Geological Survey The United States Geological Survey (USGS), formerly simply known as the Geological Survey, is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, ...

quadrangle of Washingtonville. However, its source is in the quadrangle of Hugesville. The watershed of the stream is in the northern part of Montour County. The main

land use Land use involves the management and modification of natural environment or wilderness into built environment such as settlements and semi-natural habitats such as arable fields, pastures, and managed woods. Land use by humans has a long h ...

s in the watershed of McKee Run above Pennsylvania Route 44 are forests,

cropland Agricultural land is typically land ''devoted to'' agriculture, the systematic and controlled use of other forms of lifeparticularly the rearing of livestock and production of cropsto produce food for humans. It is generally synonymous with bot ...

, and

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

. A total of 6 percent of this part of the watershed is forested.

History

McKee Run was entered into the

Geographic Names Information System The Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) is a database of name and locative information about more than two million physical and cultural features throughout the United States and its territories, Antarctica, and the associated states of ...

on August 2, 1979. Its identifier in the Geographic Names Information System is 1180740. The stream is also known as McKee Creek. A concrete bridge carrying State Route 1006 was constructed across McKee Run in 1913. It is long and is located north of Washingtonville. A bridge carrying

also crosses the stream. In 1979, The State Water Plan proposed a hypothetical reservoir known as Small Potential Reservoir #020-3 on McKee Run upstream of Pennsylvania Route 44. Its dam was to have a height of and it was to drain an area of . The reservoir would have had a volume of if built.

Biology

The vegetation along the

streambank In geography, a bank is the land alongside a body of water. Different structures are referred to as ''banks'' in different fields of geography, as follows. In limnology (the study of inland waters), a stream bank or river bank is the terrai ...

s of McKee Run consists of grasses in some reaches. Parts of the stream could benefit from additional

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 i ...

ing.

References

{{authority control Rivers of Montour County, Pennsylvania Tributaries of Chillisquaque Creek Rivers of Pennsylvania