North Branch Potomac River

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North Branch Potomac River
Tributary to Potomac River
North Branch Potomac River Cumberland.jpg
The North Branch between Cumberland, Maryland, and Ridgeley, West Virginia in 2007
USA West Virginia relief location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Location of mouth
Location
Country United States
State West Virginia, Maryland
CountyAllegany (MD), Garrett (MD), Hampshire (WV), Mineral (WV), Grant (WV), Preston (WV)
Cities (WV) Bayard, Gormania, Piedmont, Keyser, Cumberland
Cities (MD) Kitzmiller, Luke, Westernport
Physical characteristics
Source Blackwater River divide
 • locationabout 1 mile northwest of Fairfax, West Virginia
 • coordinates 39°11′42.39″N079°29′21.19″W / 39.1951083°N 79.4892194°W / 39.1951083; -79.4892194 [1]
 • elevation2,960 ft (900 m) [1]
Mouth Potomac River
 • location
about 1 mile east of Green Spring, West Virginia
 • coordinates
 39°31′42.33″N078°35′15.05″W / 39.5284250°N 78.5875139°W / 39.5284250; -78.5875139 [1]
 • elevation
525 ft (160 m) [1]
Length101.27 mi (162.98 km) [2]
Basin size1,343.04 square miles (3,478.5 km2) [3]
Discharge 
 • location Potomac River
 • average5.13 cu ft/s (0.145 m3/s) at mouth with Potomac River [3]
Basin features
Progression Potomac River → Chesapeake Bay → Atlantic Ocean
River system Potomac River
Tributaries 
 • leftLaurel Run, Sand Run, Nyedegger Run, Glade Run, Steyer Run, Laurel Run, Crooked Run, Lostland Run, Short Run, Three Forks Run, Stony Hollow, Elklick Run, Folly Run, Laurel Run, Savage River, Georges Creek, Stony Run, Wildcat Hollow, Culvert Hollow, Dry Run, Deep Hollow, Warrior Run, Wills Creek, Collier Run, Mill Run, Seven Springs Run
 • rightRed Oak Creek, Buffalo Creek, Difficult Creek, Stony River, Maple Run, Abram Creek, Deep Run, Howell Run, Piney Swamp Run, Montgomery Run, Slaughterhouse Run, Powder House Run, Thunderhill Run, New Creek, Willow Run, Ashcabin Run, Koulip Hollow, Buckwheat Hollow, Patterson Creek, Dans Run, Round Bottom Hollow, Kern Hollow, Green Spring Run
WaterbodiesBloomington Lake
BridgesWest Kempton Road (x2), Corona Bayard Road, Kitzmiller Road, Masteller Road, WV 46, US 220, Black Oak Road, WV 956, WV 28 Alt, Canal Parkway, Green Spring Road

The North Branch Potomac River flows from Fairfax Stone in West Virginia to its confluence with the South Branch Potomac River near Green Spring, West Virginia, where it turns into the Potomac River proper.

Contents

Course

From the Fairfax Stone, the North Branch Potomac River flows 27 miles (43 km) to the man-made Jennings Randolph Lake, an impoundment designed for flood control and emergency water supply. Below the dam, the North Branch cuts a serpentine path through the eastern Allegheny Mountains. First, it flows northeast by the communities of Bloomington, Luke, and Westernport in Maryland and then on by Keyser, West Virginia to Cumberland, Maryland. At Cumberland, the river turns southeast. 103 miles (166 km) downstream from its source, the North Branch is joined by the South Branch between Green Spring and South Branch Depot, West Virginia from whence it flows past Hancock, Maryland and turns southeast once more on its way toward Washington, D.C., and the Chesapeake Bay.

Water quality

Historically, the North Branch had highly acidic water due to waste from coal mining and paper production in the region. [4] In 1969, one measuring station recorded a pH of 2.3, comparable to lemon juice. [5] : 3  This regularly killed wildlife across a 60–80 km (40–50 mi) span. It was somewhat mitigated by the construction of the Bloomington Dam, which allowed for flow control based on density. [4] The dam was constructed in 1981; by 1987, the pH had returned to the neutral range in some areas, but dissolved aluminum and manganese concentrations were still at toxic levels, which continued to impede full wildlife recovery. [6] In 1990, Maryland installed lime dosers, devices which dispense alkaline lime into the river, to further mitigate acidity in problem spots. [7] This was successful, and today fish can survive in the river again. [5] : 7 

Tributaries

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jennings Randolph Lake</span> Reservoir in West Virginia, United States

Jennings Randolph Lake is a reservoir of 952 acres (3.85 km2) located on the North Branch Potomac River in Garrett County, Maryland and Mineral County, West Virginia. It is approximately 8 miles (13 km) upstream of Bloomington, Maryland, and approximately 5 miles (8.0 km) north of Elk Garden, West Virginia.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wills Creek (North Branch Potomac River tributary)</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Quantico Creek</span> River in Virginia, United States

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Accotink Creek</span> River in Virginia, United States

Accotink Creek is a 25.0-mile-long (40.2 km) tributary stream of the Potomac River in Fairfax County, Virginia, in the United States. At Springfield, Virginia, Accotink Creek is dammed to create Lake Accotink. The stream empties into the Potomac at Gunston Cove's Accotink Bay, to the west of Fort Belvoir.

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Drury Run is a tributary of the West Branch Susquehanna River in Clinton County, Pennsylvania, in the United States. It is 7.71 miles (12.41 km) long and its watershed is 11.5 square miles in area, most of which is forest. The stream's tributaries are affected by acid mine drainage, as are the lower reaches of the stream itself. It begins in Tamarack Swamp and flows through Leidy Township, Noyes Township, and Renovo. Brook trout, brown trout, creek chub, and eastern blacknose dace all inhabit the stream.

Seneca Dam was the last in a series of dams proposed on the Potomac River in the area of the Great Falls of the Potomac. Apart from small-scale dams intended to divert water for municipal use in the District of Columbia and into the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, no version of any scheme was ever built. In most cases the proposed reservoir would have extended upriver to Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. The project was part of a program of as many as sixteen major dams in the Potomac watershed, most of which were never built.

The Potomac River basin reservoir projects were U.S. Army Corps of Engineers programs that sought to regulate the flow of the Potomac River to control flooding, to assure a reliable water supply for Washington, D.C., and to provide recreational opportunities. Beginning in 1921 the Corps studied a variety of proposals for an ambitious program of dam construction on the Potomac and its tributaries, which proposed as many as sixteen major dam and reservoir projects. The most ambitious proposals would have created a nearly continuous chain of reservoirs from tidewater to Cumberland, Maryland. The 1938 program was focused on flood control, on the heels of a major flood in 1936. The reformulated 1963 program focused on water supply and quality, mitigating upstream pollution from sewage and coal mine waste.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Geographic Names Information System". edits.nationalmap.gov. US Geological Survey. Retrieved 7 November 2022.
  2. ↑ "ArcGIS Web Application". epa.maps.arcgis.com. US EPA. Retrieved November 6, 2022.
  3. 1 2 "North Branch Potomac River Watershed Report". watersgeo.epa.gov. US EPA. Retrieved 7 November 2022.
  4. 1 2 Sheer, Daniel P.; Harris, Daniel C. (1982). "Acidity Control in the North Branch Potomac". Journal (Water Pollution Control Federation). 54 (11): 1441–1446. ISSN   0043-1303. JSTOR   25041735.
  5. 1 2 Hansen, Evan; Collins, Alan; Zegre, Sera; Hereford, Anne (December 1, 2010). The Benefits of Acid Mine Drainage Remediation on the North Branch Potomac River (PDF) (Report). Downstream Strategies.
  6. ↑ Diamond, Jerome M.; Bower, William; Gruber, David (March 1993). "Use of man-made impoundment in mitigating acid mine drainage in the North Branch Potomac River". Environmental Management. 17 (2): 225–238. doi:10.1007/BF02394692. ISSN   1432-1009.
  7. ↑ Tasker, Greg (November 14, 1993). "Dose of lime may revive dead river; State to neutralize acid mine leaks". The Baltimore Sun .
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