Stream Quality
That portion of Northkill Creek from its source to the I-78 bridge is designated by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection as an Exceptional Value stream. The remainder (from I-78 to the Tulpehocken) is designated Cold Water Fishery. The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission designates Northkill Creek and its tributaries as wild trout streams. As such Northkill Creek and its tributaries are important nurseries and refuges for wild trout. The creek is stocked with both brown and brook trout. The watershed has historically hosted American eel, but dams have contributed to a decline in that population. Other significant populations include cutlips minnow, common shiner, blacknose dace, creek chub, and white sucker. Stream quality is stressed by acid rain (primarily from Ohio power plants), agricultural discharge (nitrates and phosphates), and non-agricultural development (siltation, road salt, animal waste, sewage).
Read more about this topic: Northkill Creek
Famous quotes containing the words stream and/or quality:
“This pond never breaks up so soon as the others in this neighborhood, on account both of its greater depth and its having no stream passing through it to melt or wear away the ice.... It indicates better than any water hereabouts the absolute progress of the season, being least affected by transient changes of temperature. A severe cold of a few days’ duration in March may very much retard the opening of the former ponds, while the temperature of Walden increases almost uninterruptedly.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The quality of strength lined with tenderness is an unbeatable combination, as are intelligence and necessity when unblunted by formal education.”
—Maya Angelou (b. 1928)