Press release by Sam Zavada for Times Leader on 21 February 2025
Orange ferrous iron has risen to the surface of Nanticoke Creek from the mines below, making the water inhospitable for aquatic life. This particular stretch of stream leads to the Askam treatment system.
The flow of Nanticoke Creek was heavily impacted by the Wyoming Valley’s coal mining industry from the 1900s until the mid-20th century — so much so that it’s now a shell of its former self. The team at Earth Conversancy is taking on the mammoth responsibility of bringing it back to life.
According to Terry Ostrowski, president of CEO at Earth Conservancy, and Elizabeth Hughes, director of communications, the Nanticoke Creek Watershed Restoration Project is the biggest undertaking in the organization’s history.
They say deep and surface mining, not to mention shoddy environmental regulations, caused Nanticoke Creek to fade.
“One of the main problems that happened during that time was that when the coal companies came through and they did their stripping, they really didn’t care too much about what was going on with the stream…,” Ostrowski said.
Years of redirecting streams to suit the needs of the coal companies took their toll on the flow of Nanticoke Creek, which should naturally flow through the municipalities of Nanticoke City, Warrior Run Borough and Hanover Township.
In many parts of the old creek, water was funneled through concrete or wooden flumes, such as those still visible on Holly Street in Hanover Township. This caused additional changes to the creek’s natural stream, which eventually flows into the Susquehanna River.
At one point, the creek ran below a railroad embankment. That location, now with no clear evidence of a stream in its vicinity, is the crux of Nanticoke Creek’s current issues.
“Probably for about the past 50 or 60 years, waters were cut off at that point, so all the waters from the headwaters of the Nanticoke Creek watershed, which was about a square mile of land, basically stopped at this old railroad embankment,” Ostrowski explained. “And it holed up there until it eventually seeped down int0 the mines.”
In time, the mine waters rise again, though they bring orange ferrous iron along for the ascent. This hue indicates, among other things, a dead area of stream that is unsafe for aquatic life to live and grow. In Earth Conservancy’s new plans, the restored stream will be lined with clay to prevent similarly destructive minerals from rising.
Earth Conservancy’s plan to restore these damaged or forgotten areas of Nanticoke Creek is multi-pronged. In total, they plan to restore 15,000 linear feet of Nanticoke and Leuder creeks, the latter of which feeds into the former in Hanover Township.
The first part of the plan pertains to reworking critical stretches of Nanticoke Creek’s main stem, with projects including:
- A new alignment will be established for Nanticoke Creek at Clarks Cross Road. This will be a reroute of the Nanticoke Creek’s original flow, which traces through current-day residential properties. Those homes, according to Ostrowski, will not be at an added risk of flooding due to the creek’s new path.
- A new water conveyance structure will be established on South Main Street.
The second part of the plan includes projects related to Leuder Creek, including:
- A new culvert at Hanover Street.
- The removal of Leuder Creek dam.
- The replacement of a reservoir (or silt pond) with a natural channel and shallow overflow ponds. Reparations in this area of Hanover Street will allow for Leuter Creek’s connection to Nanticoke Creek to be restored.
- The replacement of a buried culvert and deteriorated bridge with a new culvert.
Nanticoke Creek’s upper reach will be the focus of the plan’s third component, including the following projects:
- Restoring a deteriorated masonry arch with slip lining.
- Eliminating an existing obstruction and replacement with an open channel.
- Removing a bridge and stone arch from the stream’s path.
- Reestablishing a channel based on historic alignment to reconnect the upper and lower watersheds.
- Reopening a buried railroad tunnel and lining it with a smaller culvert.
These plans are being funded predominately by two grants, one each from the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The DEP grant, totaling around $17.5 million, is possibly the largest ever received by Earth Conservancy. These funds are, to say the least, essential to making the Nanticoke Creek Watershed Restoration Project a reality.
“It’s a huge project. It’s not an inexpensive project to do,” Ostrowski said.
The DEP, EPA and Bureau of Abandoned Mine Reclamation partnered with Earth Conservancy to work out a design plan and manage the needed permits. Local engineer George Albert and Plains Township-based developer Stell Enterprises are also involved with the planning and execution of the Nanticoke Creek Watershed Restoration Project. The individual projects detailed above will be carried out on land already owned by Earth Conservancy.
“All of the work that’s being done here is actually on Earth Conservancy property, which makes it a lot easier to do this, rather than trying to obtain rights to the properties,” said Ostrowski. “That’s what made this project possible.”
The Nanticoke Creek Watershed Restoration Project also has broader environmental, recreational and commercial implications. As the stream becomes healthier with time, the hope is that aquatic life will return to the restored areas. Earth Conservancy is seeing these results in the similar — yet comparatively small — project to restore Espy Run, which was completed in December 2022.
In order to carry out the full set of plans, Earth Conservancy has had to cut down many trees in Nanticoke Creek’s path. Doing so has caused some concern in the impacted communities, but Ostrowski has assured residents that a plan is in place to bring greenery back to the creek’s banks.
“We’ve actually received a lot of calls over concerns about the trees that are being cleared, but the reassurance there is that we are going to be reestablishing tree cover…,” he said, adding that 5,000 new trees will be planted to replace those that are lost.
With established funding and a consistent team of collaborators, Ostrowki estimated that the Nanticoke Creek Watershed Restoration Project will be completed in two to three years, a fraction of the time it took to complete the Espy Run project.
