The Susquehanna River, in the Mid-Atlantic States of the United States, has a collection of dams. These dams are used for power generation, flood control, navigation and recreation. The first dams at Sunbury, Pennsylvania were to support year round ferry crossings.
The dams slow water, trapping silt and pollutants. Conowingo Dam [1] is credited with preventing much of the silt from Pennsylvania from reaching the Chesapeake Bay. The dam spillways can add oxygen to the water. The down stream side of dams is favored by aquatic birds, possibly because the fish that pass through the dam are a bit stunned. Hydroelectric power is an environmentally friendly method of power generation. The dams also raise the water level, altering the riparian environment. The upstream pools can become environmentally unsound below the surface, especially during summer. They block migratory fish, such as the American shad. The dams from York Haven down to the Chesapeake all have fish ladders or lifts in an attempt to mitigate this.
Communities on the river edge have been displaced, such as Conowingo, Bald Friar, and Glen Cove, Maryland in 1928.
Listed from the headwaters toward the mouth of the river. This includes existing and historic structures, as well as dams off the river that have a major impact on the river. The river also grows its own ice dams during the winter and notable ones will be included.
Name | Height | Capacity (MW) | State | Completed | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Shamokin Dam | 0 | PA | Original low head navigation and canal feeder. Demolished 1904. | ||
Adam T. Bower Memorial Dam near Sunbury, Pennsylvania | 8 ft (2.4 m) | 0 | PA | ||
Shamokin Dam power plant low head dam | 0 | PA | |||
Clarks Ferry Dam | 0 | PA | Canal for the Wiconisco Canal around the site of Clarks Ferry Bridge. Demolished. | ||
Dock Street Dam | 6 ft (1.8 m) | 0 | PA | 1913 | |
York Haven Dam | 18 ft (5.5 m) | 21 | PA | ||
Wrightsville Dam | 10 ft (3.0 m) | 0 | PA | 1840 | Former canal feeder, demolished. |
Safe Harbor Dam | 75 ft (23 m) | 417.5 | PA | 1931 | |
Holtwood Dam | 55 ft (17 m) | 252 | PA | 1910 | |
Conowingo Dam | 94 ft (29 m) | 548 | MD | 1928 |
The Susquehanna River is a major river located in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, overlapping between the lower Northeast. At 444 miles (715 km) long, it is the longest river on the East Coast of the United States. By watershed area, it is the 16th-largest river in the United States, and also the longest river in the early 21st-century continental United States without commercial boat traffic.
Otsego Lake is a 4,046-acre (16.37 km2) lake located in Otsego County in the U.S. state of New York. It is the source of the Susquehanna River and largest lake in Otsego County. The Village of Cooperstown is located at the lake's southern end. Glimmerglass State Park is located on the lake's northeastern shore, and includes Hyde Hall, a large mansion constructed in 1817, that overlooks the lake. The Glimmerglass Opera, opened in June 1987, is located on the western shore.
Tulpehocken Creek is a 39.5-mile-long (63.6 km) tributary of the Schuylkill River in southeastern Pennsylvania in the United States, and during the American Canal Age, once provided nearly half the length of the Union Canal linking the port of Philadelphia, the largest American city and the other communities of Delaware Valley with the Susquehanna basin and the Pennsylvania Canal System connecting the Eastern seaboard to Lake Erie and the new settlements of the Northwest Territory via the Allegheny}, Monongahela. and Ohio Rivers at Pittsburgh.
The Conowingo Dam is a large hydroelectric dam in the lower Susquehanna River near the town of Conowingo, Maryland. The medium-height, masonry gravity dam is one of the largest non-federal hydroelectric dams in the U.S., and the largest dam in the state of Maryland.
Harveys Creek is a tributary of the Susquehanna River in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, in the United States. It is approximately 14.5 miles (23.3 km) long and flows through Harveys Lake, Lake Township, Lehman Township, Jackson Township, and Plymouth Township. The creek's watershed has an area of 46.3 square miles (120 km2). The creek has four named tributaries, which are known as Bear Hollow Creek, Paint Spring Run, Pikes Creek, and East Fork Harveys Creek. The watershed is designated as a High-Quality Coldwater Fishery and a Migratory Fishery above Pikes Creek and as a Coldwater Fishery and a Migratory Fishery below it. The creek's source is Harveys Lake, the largest natural lake in Pennsylvania.
Conowingo is a community in northwestern Cecil County, Maryland, United States. The community replaced a previous one that was inundated by a reservoir.
The Adam T. Bower Memorial Dam is the world's longest inflatable dam. The dam is located just below the confluence of the Western and Main Branches of the Susquehanna River, in Upper Augusta Township, between the town of Shamokin Dam and the city of Sunbury, Pennsylvania.
Holtwood Dam is the oldest of three major dams built across the lower Susquehanna River, and the middle location of the three. It was constructed as the McCalls Ferry Dam between 1905 and 1910 by the Pennsylvania Water & Power (PW&P) Company. The dam was renamed Holtwood in honor of two company executives. PW&P merged with Pennsylvania Power & Light (PPL) in 1955. In 2015 Talen Energy took over PPL's generation and immediately sold the Holtwood plant to Brookfield Renewable Energy Partners to comply with federal antitrust requirements.
The Safe Harbor Dam is a concrete gravity dam, with an associated hydroelectric power station, on the lower Susquehanna River. It is the most northerly and last of three Great Depression-era public electrification projects' hydroelectric dams, and was constructed between April 1, 1930, and December 7, 1931. It created a long and relatively shallow lake, known as Lake Clarke, along the upper stretch of the Conejohela Valley. The creation of the lake shrank the upper Conejohela Flats in size.
Octoraro Creek is a 22.1-mile-long (35.6 km) tributary of the Susquehanna River, joining it 9 miles (14 km) above the Susquehanna's mouth at Chesapeake Bay. The Octoraro rises as an East and West Branch in Pennsylvania. The East Branch and Octoraro Creek form the southern half of the border between Lancaster and Chester counties until the creek crosses the Mason-Dixon line. It winds through northwestern Cecil County, Maryland before joining the Susquehanna.
Conewago Creek is an 80.2-mile-long (129.1 km) tributary of the Susquehanna River in Adams and York counties in Pennsylvania in the United States, with its watershed also draining a small portion of Carroll County, Maryland. The source is at an elevation of 1,440 feet (440 m), east of Caledonia State Park, in Franklin Township in Adams County. The mouth is the confluence with the Susquehanna River at York Haven in York County at an elevation of 259 feet (79 m).
Shikellamy State Park is a 132-acre (53 ha) Pennsylvania state park located at the confluence of the West Branch Susquehanna River and Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania. The park is divided into two sections. The older part, on a bluff on the western bank of the Susquehanna River, is the 78-acre (32 ha) Shikellamy overlook in Union Township, Union County. The newer part is the 54-acre (22 ha) marina on the southern end of Packer Island in Upper Augusta Township, Northumberland County. Packer's Island lies between the city of Sunbury and the borough of Northumberland at the confluence of the two branches of the river.
The Susquehanna and Tidewater Canal between Wrightsville, Pennsylvania, and Havre de Grace, Maryland, at the head of Chesapeake Bay, provided an interstate shipping alternative to 19th-century arks, rafts, and boats plying the difficult waters of the lower Susquehanna River. Built between 1836 and 1840, it ran 43 miles (69 km) along the west bank of the river and rendered obsolete an older, shorter canal along the east bank. Of its total length, 30 miles (48 km) were in Pennsylvania and 13 miles (21 km) in Maryland. Although rivalry between Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Baltimore, Maryland, delayed its construction, the finished canal brought increased shipments of coal and other raw materials to both cities from Pennsylvania's interior. Competition from railroads was a large factor in the canal's decline after 1855. Canal remnants, including a lock keeper's house, have been preserved in Maryland, and locks 12 and 15 have been preserved in Pennsylvania.
Broad Creek is a tributary of the lower Susquehanna River located in Harford County, Maryland.
Susquehanna River National Wildlife Refuge is located on a small island 3.79 acres (15,300 m2) in size located at the mouth of the Susquehanna River in Harford County, Maryland. It is a satellite refuge managed by Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge. In the 1920s, the island was used as a fish hatchery to produce such species as shad.
The Conejohela Flats are a group of islands in the flooded Conejohela Valley, a large floodplain along the southernmost 30 miles (50 km) of the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania and Maryland in the United States. The valley was flooded primarily during the early 1900s by the construction of the Holtwood, Conowingo, and Safe Harbor dams from 1910 to 1931.
Nanticoke Creek is a tributary of the Susquehanna River in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, in the United States. It is approximately 4.4 miles (7.1 km) long and flows through Hanover Township and Nanticoke. The watershed of the creek has an area of 7.57 square miles (19.6 km2). The creek has one named tributary, which is known as Espy Run. Nanticoke Creek impaired by pH and metals due to abandoned mine drainage. Abandoned mine drainage discharges in the creek's watershed include the Truesdale Mine Discharge and the Askam Borehole. The creek is located in the Northern Middle Anthracite Field and is in the Anthracite Valley Section of the ridge and valley physiographic province. The main rock formations in the watershed include the Mauch Chunk Formation, the Pottsville Group, and the Llewellyn Formation. The surficial geology consists of coal dumps, surface mining land, alluvium, Wisconsinan Outwash, Wisconsinan Till, urban land, and bedrock.
The Salt Water Barrier was a proposed project on the estuary of the Delaware River, which was projected in the late 1950s to convert the lower reaches of the Delaware into a freshwater lake. The barrier was proposed as a 30-foot (9.1 m) high dam near New Castle, Delaware, 53,300 feet (16,200 m) long, equipped with locks for the passage of shipping to Wilmington and Philadelphia. A study for the project was authorized by Congress in 1958, with engineering evaluations and public hearings by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The prime purpose of the project was to develop the lower river as a source of drinking water for communities along the lower river. Objections to the barrier included concerns about the oyster industry, shipping constraints, increased shoaling, ice formation, and most importantly, the possibility of trapping pollutants above the barrier. The project was found to be technically feasible, but not economically practical. It was not included in the final Delaware River Basin Report of 1962, which proposed reservoirs higher in the Delaware River basin, and no further action was taken.