Kettle Creek is a tributary of the West Branch Susquehanna River running through Tioga, Potter, and Clinton counties, in Pennsylvania. It is slightly less than long. Although many streams in the Kettle Creek watershed are considered "Class A Wild Trout streams" by the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission, the lower reaches of the stream experience acid mine drainage. The upper reaches of the creek are considered to be very high-quality.
Kettle Creek flows through Elk Township in Tioga County, then Abbott Township and Stewardson Township in Potter County, then Leidy Township and Noyes Township in Clinton County. Its mouth is at the community of Westport. Major tributaries include Cross Fork, Hammersley Fork, Little Kettle Creek, and others. The Kettle Creek Lake is located on Kettle Creek. Numerous metals and other substances contaminate the creek. These include iron, aluminum, manganese, and sulfates. The creek's discharge at Westport ranges from 4 to 6280 cubic feet per second and the pH ranges from 5.5 to 8.6. It also experiences abnormally high water temperatures.
Kettle Creek is a freestone stream. The rock in the watershed is mostly sandstone and interbedded sedimentary rock. Rock formations in the watershed include the Burgoon Sandstone, the Huntley Mountain Formation, the Pottsville Group, and the Allegheny Group. The Lower Kittanning and Upper Kittanning coal beds are also found in the watershed. The Kettle Creek watershed has an area of in Tioga, Potter, Clinton, and Cameron Counties. The vast majority (approximately 93%) of the land in it is forested land and approximately 92% is publicly owned land, such as state forests. The watershed has a sparse permanent population, although it is home to numerous seasonal camps.
The Iroquois and Delaware Indians were the first inhabitants of the Kettle Creek watershed. The first European settler arrived in 1794 and with more settlers arriving in the following decades. The coal mining industry began in the watershed in 1874 and lasted until the 1970s. The lumbering industry lasted from the mid-1800s to around 1910. Natural gas was also extracted in the watershed in the 20th century.
Course Kettle Creek begins in a valley in the northwestern part of Elk Township, Tioga County. It heads southeast for a short distance before turning west and exiting Elk Township.
Upon exiting Elk Township, Kettle Creek enters Abbott Township, Potter County. It heads southwest, passing Bear Run Ridge, Rawson Ridge, Big Ridge, and several hollows, also picking up several small tributaries along the way. After a few miles, it enters Stewardson Township. Its course takes on a west-southwest direction and it passes by the community of Oleona, where it picks up the tributary Little Kettle Creek. It also begins paralleling Pennsylvania Route 144 at this point. Kettle Creek then makes a sharp turn to the south-southwest. The course soon resumes its southwestern direction, passing through Ole Bull State Park. The creek passes Keeney Mountain and several more hollows before turning west-northwest briefly to pick up the tributary Cross Fork in the southwestern reaches of Stewardson Township. The creek then turns southwest again and leaves the township.
When Kettle Creek leaves Stewardson Township, it enters Leidy Township, in Clinton County. Immediately after entering Clinton County, the creek passes a gauging station. It continues in a roughly southwesterly course, passing Dykes Peak and Turtle Point. It then receives the tributary Hammersley Fork as it passes through Susquehannock State Forest. A few miles after the mouth of Hammersley Fork, Kettle Creek makes two meanders and turns south, passing through Sproul State Forest and then Kettle Creek State Park. In Kettle Creek State Park, the creek goes through a lake and passes the Alvin R. Bush Dam, upstream of the mouth.
At the southern edge of Leidy Township, Kettle Creek makes several meanders, crossing the border between Leidy Township and Noyes Township three times. The creek then meanders several miles through Noyes Township, passing strip mines and another gauging station. The creek's mouth is at the community of Westport, near Pennsylvania Route 120.
Tributaries Significant tributaries to Kettle Creek include Germania Branch, Little Kettle Creek, Cross Fork, Hammersley Fork, Trout Run, Beaverdam Run, Twomile Run and others. In the upper reaches of Kettle Creek, the tributaries Billings Branch, Sliders Branch, Germania Branch, and Long Run flow into the creek, in that order. They all enter Kettle Creek roughly from the north. In the middle reaches of Kettle Creek, Little Kettle Creek, Cross Fork, and Hammersley Fork flow into the creek from the north, in that order. Further downstream, Trout Run, Walters Run and Beaverdam Run enter the creek from the northwest and Hevner Run and Spicewood Run enter it from the east. Near Kettle Creek's mouth, Twomile Run enters it from the northeast.
Hydrology
Chemical hydrology At the United States Geographical Survey stream gauge downstream of the Alvin R. Bush Dam, the load of iron in Kettle Creek is per day. The daily load of iron is at the mouth of the tributary Twomile Run. The load of iron is per day at the mouth of the tributary Butler Hollow. At the mouth of Kettle Creek, the load is per day. The daily load of manganese at the mouth of the creek is and at the mouth of Butler Hollow it is per day. At the mouth of Twomile Run, the daily manganese load is and at the USGS stream gauge on Kettle Creek, the load is per day.
At the USGS gauge on Kettle Creek, the daily load of aluminum is and at the mouth of Twomile Run it is per day. At the mouth of Butler Hollow, the aluminum load is per day. At the mouth of Kettle Creek itself, it is per day. The daily load of acidity at the creek's mouth is per day and at the mouth of Butler Hollow it is per day. The acidity load at the mouth of Twomile Run is per day and at the USGS gauge the load is per day.
At the USGS gauging station on Kettle Creek, the concentration of iron is 0.15 milligrams per liter, the concentration of manganese is 0.04 milligrams per liter, and the concentration of aluminum is 0.14 milligrams per liter. The acidity concentration is 0.64 milligrams per liter and the concentration of alkalinity is 11.36 milligrams per liter. At the mouth of Twomile Run, the concentration of iron is 5.09 milligrams per liter, the concentration of manganese is 6.44 milligrams per liter, and the aluminum concentration is 8.57 milligrams per liter. The concentration of acidity is 90.5 milligrams per liter and there is no alkalinity.
The iron, manganese, and aluminum concentrations at the mouth of Butler Hollow are 1.68, 16.9, and 15.05 milligrams per liter, respectively. The concentration of acidity is 121.28 milligrams per liter and the alkalinity concentration is 0. At the mouth of Kettle Creek, the iron concentration is 0.15 milligrams per liter and the manganese concentration is 0.07 milligrams per liter. Aluminum occurs in concentrations of 0.15 milligrams per liter at the mouth of the creek. The concentration of acidity and alkalinity are 1.65 and 11.17 milligrams per liter, respectively.
In 2006, the concentration of sulfates at several points on Kettle Creek was measured. Upstream of Slide Hollow, it was seven milligrams per liter and in Slide Hollow, it was 910 milligrams per liter. The sulfate concentration of Kettle Creek upstream of Short Bend Run was 8 milligrams per liter. In Short Bend Run it was 431 milligrams per liter. Above Twomile Run on Kettle Creek, the sulfate concentration was 16 milligrams per liter and at the mouth it was 11 milligrams per liter. Upstream of the acid mine drainage, the sulfate concentration ranges from under 10 to 17 parts per million. In areas affected by acid mine drainage, the sulfate concentration ranges from 37 to 1375 parts per million.
The chloride concentration in the waters of Kettle Creek and its tributaries is very low, ranging from under one to three parts per million. There are high nitrate levels in parts of Little Kettle Creek and Kettle Creek. The phosphorus levels in the waters range from under 0.02 to 0.06 parts per million. Upstream of the Alvin R. Bush Dam, the concentration is less than or equal to 0.03 parts per million. The concentration of total suspended solids ranges from 18 to 44 parts per million above the Alvin R. Bush Dam. The concentrations of chromium, nickel, copper, zinc, arsenic, cadmium, and lead in Kettle Creek and its tributaries are so small as to be undetectable. The waters of the Kettle Creek watershed are relatively soft waters, with a hardness level of 6 to 145 parts per million. The dissolved oxygen concentration ranges from 6.5 to 18.2 parts per million.
The discharge of Kettle Creek at the USGS gauge at Westport ranged from 4 to 6280 cubic feet per second between 1970 and 2006. The median discharge was 208 cubic feet per second and the mean was 396 cubic feet per second. The pH of the creek at this point was measured in 1980 and 1983 to by 6.4. The tributaries Twomile Run, Huling Branch, and Middle Branch above the acid mine drainage have had their pH levels measured at 5.9, 5.7, and 5.5, respectively. The pH of the watershed ranges from 5.5 to 8.6. The alkalinity concentration of the waters of the creek ranged from 20 to 25 milligrams per liter in the 1950s and 1960s, but decreased to 11 to 15 milligrams per liter by 1993. Kettle Creek's level of specific conductivity ranges from 50 to 1500 micro-siemens.
On the western side of the lower reaches of the Kettle Creek watershed, there is an underground mine complex with 26 sources of acid mine drainage. The acid mine drainage enters Kettle Creek, among other streams in the area and the sources of it have an average discharge of 479 gallons per minute. They also have 304 milligrams per liter of acidity, 44 milligrams per liter of iron, 21 milligrams per liter of aluminum, 8 milligrams per liter of manganese, and 930 milligrams per liter of sulfates. The alkalinity load from the Alvin R. Bush Dam is about 15 times greater than the acidity load from these acid mine discharges.
Kettle Creek has been known to have an abnormally high water temperature since 1942. On warm, cloudless days, the temperature can be close to . On June 25, 2003, the water temperature of Kettle Creek was measured to be . The average precipitation by month between 1960 and 2000 ranged from in January and February to in June. The lower of Kettle Creek are affected by acid mine drainage. Most of the pollution in the watershed is nonpoint source pollution.
Dams There are four impoundments on Kettle Creek. Three of them are state park impoundments, designed for recreation. They are known as the Ole Bull Dam, the Kettle Creek Dam, and Kettle Creek Lake. The Ole Bull Dam and the Kettle Creek Dam are between in height. The Alvin R. Bush Dam, which is also on the creek, is tall.
Geology and geography The lower reaches of the Kettle Creek watershed are in the Appalachian Plateau geographical region. The northern part of the watershed is in the Mountainous High Plateau Section, while the southern part is in the Pittsburgh Low Plateau Section. The highest elevation in the Kettle Creek watershed is above sea level, in the Cross Fork sub-watershed. Kettle Creek is a freestone stream, meaning that there is little limestone and alkalinity in it.