Jordan Ck, Sect 06, Whitehall Twsp, Lehigh Co: most (all?) of upper mi dry

[Mike]

Good indicator of how dry it has been in parts of the Lehigh Valley. Never saw it dry anywhere in Jordan Ck, Section 06 before. Saw extremely low flow days in the past, but never dry. Perhaps I just missed some occasional dry creek bed days in the past, however. There is some water downstream about 0.75 mi. Still, what’s been seen is a substantial change from the “normal, seasonal low flows.”

Pic is a riffle and run that leads into a 30 yd long, 30 ft wide, 3-4 ft deep pool, which is also bone dry. I’ve seen it dry frequently about 4-5 mi upstream in Section 04, North Whitehall Twsp, but never in Section 06.

 

[bringthepain]

Wow, thats a bummer. Doing the rain dance over here for sure

 

[Mike]

Walked farther this afternoon. Found some longer pools still holding shallow water and found some puddles. One puddle was surrounded with dead fish…small suckers, sunfish, shiners, smallmouths, but some were still alive. A number of live and dead ones had at least one eye missing, probably from bird pecks.

Ran into a couple who said that they had been walking dogs very frequently along this stream segment since the late 1980’s. Had never seen the creek channel completely dry anywhere in the past.

 

[troutbert]

Can you give us a location for where the photo was taken?

Are there any limestone quarries or water supply wellfields nearby?

 

[Mike]

Within the range of a quarter mile to a mile upstream from Mickley Rd,
Whitehall. All pics within that section of Lehigh County’s Jordan Creek Park. The closest limestone quarry is about 4 mi north. I don’t know where any public water supply wells are located but the thought did cross my mind that the cone(s) of influence from a well or series of wells might be intersecting the stream. With dry conditions through much of the summer there possibly would have been increased water usage. One local waster authority’s water sources aren’t in the Jordan Basin, but I’m uncertain about another local authority’s water sources. As I noted, part or all of Section 04, which is crossed by Rt 309, frequently dries up, but the stream within Section 06, the subject Section, continues to flow.

To add to and do a minor correction to my previous post, upon further examination this afternoon, it is more likely that crayfish removed the eyes of a number of fish and that the lost eyes were not from bird pecks. Additionally, I would add pre-feeding sea lamprey juveniles, fallfish, and margined madtoms to the above species listed in #3.

 

[KeviR]

Ugh, that's gruesome.

 

[Oregon_OwlII]

Last year I thought the Bushkill Creek was the lowest I had ever seen it in October. I wonder if this is a regional problem (and I know the Bushkill has quarry issues).

 

[Bamboozle]

That stinks...

Obviously not the same thing or stream, but I remember all too well seeing Sections 4, & 5 of the Monocasy Creek bone dry during an extended drought well over 20 years ago.

Section 3 & 4 are in quarry territory but I don't recall any reported incidents that year. On a drive upstream to some access points, I did see a few pockets of water holding struggling & dead fish but they dried up later as the drought continued.

Fortunately a couple of big springs in Section 6 & 7 kept the lower stream from a similar fate.

 

[Mike]

Walked farther this afternoon. Found some longer pools still holding shallow water and found some puddles. One puddle was surrounded with dead fish…small suckers, sunfish, shiners, smallmouths, but some were still alive. A number of live and dead ones had at least one eye missing, probably from bird pecks.

Ran into a couple who said that they had been walking dogs very frequently along this stream segment since the late 1980’s. Had never seen the creek channel completely dry anywhere in the past.

Now seen among increasing numbers of dead warmwater and transitional fish species was a Brown Trout fingerling, about 4.5” long. That was surprising for that stretch, given the low flows all summer and the strings of hot days. Also to be added to the species listings in #3 and #5 above would be banded killifish, tessellated darters, shield darters, blacknose dace, and longnose dace.

 

[bringthepain]

It hasnt rained at my house in bucks county other than a tiny shower since that hurricane blew thru that flooded north central PA in July. Even that night we only got about 1.5 hours of a steady rain.

 

[Bamboozle]

We got 1.38" for all of September and .04" so far in October at my house in Berks.