Sean Dougherty, Watershed Specialist
Lisa Snider, District Director Fort Jackson Building, Mezzanine, 19 South Washington Street, Waynesburg, PA 15370
Phone: 724-852-5278 / Fax: 724-852-5341
Office Hours: 8:30 a.m.—4:30 p.m., Monday—Friday
Water is one of Pennsylvania's most precious and basic resources. Pennsylvanians use 14.3 billion gallons of water every day. Almost all of it - 13.7 billion gallons - is returned to the environment. That means that each of us has a special responsibility to use water in ways that do not harm aquatic life and other water users downstream. But we also must be concerned about water in other ways. Our activities, as individuals and as communities, can have a big impact on the severity and frequency of floods that cause loss of life and property damage.
A watershed is a geographic area . . . from which water drains toward a common watercourse (such as a lake, stream, and ocean) in a natural basin. When thinking of a watershed do not just think of water, include landuse, topography, geology etc. All of these components affect watersheds. Within each major watershed lie sub-watersheds or tributaries that drain into these larger watersheds.
Watersheds are the basic building blocks of the natural environment.
Plants and animals are dependent on a healthy watershed to provide their habitat.
People are dependent on watersheds for our habitat as well.
Polluting our watershed means ruining water supplies and recreation areas.
Careless land development means increasing flooding and property damage.
Streams, lakes, and other bodies of water are affected by what happens in their watersheds - the land areas that drain to them. More and more people are working to improve and protect Pennsylvania's watersheds, by learning about their watersheds and sharing that information with their neighbors, by restoring water quality through hands-on projects, and by planning for future water resources management.
ABOUT GREENE COUNTY's WATERSHEDS:
Greene County is divided into two river basins, the Monongahela River Basin and the Ohio River Basin. Seven of Greene County watersheds (Crooked Run, Dunkard Creek, Little Whiteley, Muddy Creek, Pumpkin Run, South Fork of Ten Mile and Whiteley) flow into the Monongahela River and its river basin. From Greene County the river meanders north and meets the Allegheny River to form the Ohio River.
There are ten watersheds within Greene County:
Crooked Run
Dunkard Creek
Dunkard Fork of Wheeling Creek
Enlow Fork
Fish Creek
Little Whiteley
Muddy Creek
Pumpkin Run
South Fork of Ten Mile
Whiteley Creek
Three of our watersheds (Enlow Fork, Dunkard Fork of Wheeling Creek, and Fish Creek) flow into the Ohio River Basin, and it moves southwest through West Virginia and eventually flows into the Ohio River.
All of our little streams that flow from our hillsides feed our major streams in Greene County, and our major streams feed the rivers.
Dunkard Creek criss-crosses the Pennsylvania-West Virginia border 18-times before reaching the Monongahela River, which flows north to Pittsburgh, where it joins the Allegheny River to form the Ohio River.
Dunkard Creek is a 38-mile creek contains a unique ecosystem with 161 species of fish, 14 species of mussels, salamanders, crayfish and aquatic insects. It's one of only two or three creeks like it on the Monongahela River watershed.
As the Ohio River flows, it meets the Mississippi then onto the Gulf of Mexico. The waters and rivers of Greene County are part of a bigger process called the Hydrologic Cycle. So how Greene County treats our watersheds can have far reaching effects in other watersheds of the nation.
The Hydrologic/Water Cycle Source: http://www.greenewatersheds.org/cycle.html
The sun's heat evaporates water from the rivers, lakes and oceans, in addition to the earth and leaves of plants.
As the water vapors condense (changes from a gas to a liquid) into droplets to form clouds, and the droplets collide and join togethe forming larger droplets, they fall as rain or snow.
The natural cycle of water ensures that there is no waste in nature, and that the earth's resources are continually reused.
For general information, please contact the Information Services at 724-852-5399 / Toll Free: 1-888-852-5399. County Office Building, 93 E. High Street, Waynesburg, PA 15370
