"Vanishing" Lancaster County trout stream

The Little Conestoga Creek along Lititz Rd. is currently dry. Cracked mud cakes line the bottom of the little spring as it makes it's way in to Bent Creek. Not sure if it's just a sink hole or just due to the dry conditions. I've seen it dry up in previous years past so I'm thinking it's a low water table.
 
Streams in limestone valley regularly sink, sometimes because of natural occurrences other times due to human intervention in the environment. Is there a quarry nearby? That would be a primary cause for the sinkhole to form. Wells will also cause a sinkhole when water tables are low. Suck too much water out of the ground and you get sinkholes.
 
I did not hear about the referenced Cedar Run sinkhole...

Sounds like local TU chapters could become involved.
 
Man, what a spot burn.
 
raftman wrote:
Man, what a spot burn.
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You're over-reacting, first the stream is an ATW, second this is a conservation issue. Every stream need it's advocates, especially now that the legislature seem hellbent on wrecking every trout stream in the Commonwealth.
 
Whoa man, I was joking, which I'm certain Wgmiller got...
 
Night_Stalker wrote:
I did not hear about the referenced Cedar Run sinkhole...

Sounds like local TU chapters could become involved.
Click to expand...

That was around 1997-1998.
 
Quote:

Night_Stalker wrote:
I did not hear about the referenced Cedar Run sinkhole...

Sounds like local TU chapters could become involved.
Click to expand...


That was around 1997-1998.
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Well, there was another one last year on the prison grounds. Not sure how big it was and pretty sure it was taken care of by the prison, heard about it thru the grapevine.
 
slay12345 wrote:
The Little Conestoga Creek along Lititz Rd. is currently dry. Cracked mud cakes line the bottom of the little spring as it makes it's way in to Bent Creek. Not sure if it's just a sink hole or just due to the dry conditions. I've seen it dry up in previous years past so I'm thinking it's a low water table.
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I saw that as well, and that's a bigger stream than the one that was in the newspaper article. Even with recent rains there's been no water there at all. With the quarry nearby I'm wondering if they've intercepted the water table in such a way as to dry out that spring. If so, that would be a terrible shame. That actually had some very good flow there.

Jeff
 
I might guess the large development immediately downstream pulling water for wells and watering the golf course would have an equal impact on the stream. I think an email to the watershed specialist is in order.
 
If Indian Run is a "trout stream", then so is my urine.
 
In reference to Little Conestoga Creek...

Most of this Josh is due to the quarry. If you go over the stream at night the stream is usually flowing. Both quarries in that area, Rohrer’s and Binkley and Hurst, pull groundwater from the quarry pit during the day when they are working. They put all this water into a basin to settle out the fines in the water. Then when they leave at night they turn the pumps on and discharge this water into the Little Conestoga Cr. and Bachman Run. Fortunately or unfortunately all of this is legal and spelled out in the permit they have with DEP. You can really see it at these two locations because they are towards the headwaters of both of these streams. This is not to say that Bent Creek isn’t also influencing some of this as well but most of it is the quarry and how they run their business. I see it in dry and wet weather conditions and hear it from folks that live along both creeks.

Matthew, W. Kofroth, Watershed Coordinator
Lancaster County Conservation District
 
The Little Conestoga is a limestone creek if I am not mistaken. At least in the headwaters section. Lot's of watercress etc and cooler water. It is of course now ruined by farming and development and the quarry. Lancaster County is loaded with limestone creeks and almost all of them have been destroyed.
 
slay12345 wrote:
In reference to Little Conestoga Creek...

Most of this Josh is due to the quarry. If you go over the stream at night the stream is usually flowing. Both quarries in that area, Rohrer’s and Binkley and Hurst, pull groundwater from the quarry pit during the day when they are working. They put all this water into a basin to settle out the fines in the water. Then when they leave at night they turn the pumps on and discharge this water into the Little Conestoga Cr. and Bachman Run. Fortunately or unfortunately all of this is legal and spelled out in the permit they have with DEP. You can really see it at these two locations because they are towards the headwaters of both of these streams. This is not to say that Bent Creek isn’t also influencing some of this as well but most of it is the quarry and how they run their business. I see it in dry and wet weather conditions and hear it from folks that live along both creeks.

Matthew, W. Kofroth, Watershed Coordinator
Lancaster County Conservation District
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Does he realize its not flowing at all from the spring(s) right off of Lititz Road? Day or night. That's upstream of the Binkley & Ober quarry and Bent Creek. That section is the part that always looked like a lovely limestone stream with clear water and tons of cress. The flow started to decrease a few months ago and the stream stagnated a bit, then it all dried up. I don't think its just a dry weather situation, either as that was a major amount of flow up there. Of course, it could be a new underground sinkhole has diverted the spring, but it also could be Bent Creek sucking it dry or the quarry intercepting the water table in such a way as to suck it dry as well.

Jeff
 
foxtrapper1972 wrote:
The Little Conestoga is a limestone creek if I am not mistaken. At least in the headwaters section. Lot's of watercress etc and cooler water. It is of course now ruined by farming and development and the quarry. Lancaster County is loaded with limestone creeks and almost all of them have been destroyed.
Click to expand...

Sad but very true. That little section from a fairly large spring just north of Lititz Road used to have pretty strong water flow and looked gorgeous--clear water, lots of cress. I used to drive over it and think it really should have trout in it. Now its just a dry bed. At least some of the other limestone springs are flowing, and someday the pollution might be halted. Hopefully this spring isn't permanently cut off.

Jeff
 
I'm not sure if he is totally aware of the situation towards the headwaters, however he was very aware that they've been dry in sections. This is the longest I've seen it dry in the fall though.

I've always thought that it should hold trout up this far, beautiful cress beds throughout most of the summer until someone puts in a herbicide to kill it off. I guess they think it's polluted with "algae".
 
Any new housing construction sites being developed in the area down stream?
 
Pennypack, nothing new for development, but there is a high density of housing downstream of the area we're talking about. Actually what was pointed out about the nearby quarries is that they are most likely the the main culprit. This stream sits less than 1.5 miles from one quarry to the east and under a mile from a quarry sitting to the west. I know one quarry is permitted to mine limestone to a depth of 200'
 
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