December 19, 2018
Unlike the Centre Region, most communities with a population of several thousand or more are located adjacent to a river or a large body of fresh water. For those communities, water management is relatively simple: “Pump it and Dump It.”
Water is pumped from the river upstream of the community, used, and after treatment, the wastewater is dumped back into the river downstream. Where the source is a lake, water drawn from the lake is treated, used and the treated wastewater returned to the...
May 4, 2017
This article was originally published by the Susquehanna River Basin Commission: State of the Susquehanna 2010 Report.
Spring Creek, a famous stream in the West Branch of the Susquehanna River watershed, is aptly named. Within this 146-square-mile watershed, there are at least seven springs that each produce more than 1 million gallons per day (mgd) of clean, cold water. These springs have influenced settlement patterns in the watershed. The most famous is Big Spring around which the Borough o...
January 11, 2017
Map of land use in the Spring Creek Watershed in 2014.
By clicking on the map above, you will open it as a pdf image that you can enlarge.
Rain falls everywhere on the Spring Creek watershed. Where it falls, whether on the forested ridges, the agricultural valleys, or the built up and paved over neighborhoods, it has a profound impact on the water quality of its streams. The Centre Regional Planning Agency's estimate of land use in the watershed in 2014 was 38% forest, 29% agriculture, 26% develop...
Forested watersheds provide many benefits to humans. One of the most important is to provide clean, clear drinking water but forested watersheds also support fish and wildlife and provide endless recreational opportunities. An often overlooked benefit of forested watersheds is pollution dilution. Many of our towns and cities rely on clean water coming from upstream, forested areas to allow us to dispose of wastewater and other pollutants into the stream while still maintaining a relatively clean...
