Sawmill Creek
Waste Management and Alliance Landfill completed its 7,400-foot Sawmill Creek relocation project in the fall of 2003. Before the stream project began in 1998, Sawmill Creek entered Alliance's property from the Snake Road area of Ransom Twp. and then flowed into old waste pits and the area's underground mine workings. This condition exposed the water to potential contaminants in the old waste and contributed to acid mine drainage, a condition that harms aquatic life across Pennsylvania.
The earlier phases of the project relocated the creek into a new channel. Several plunge pools — basins that sustain aquatic life during dry weather and help reduce the overall slope of the stream — were installed in the upper length of the creek. Work conducted in 2003 included removal of a collapsing culvert below an abandoned railroad line, grading eroded slopes, stabilization of the creek's banks, seeding of the banks, and the planting of close to 50 scarlet oak, red maple and eastern hemlock trees.
WM Alliance Saw Mill Creek - Construction Pre-existing Creek Running into Mine Hole
WM Alliance Saw Mill Creek - Creek Corridor Construction Progresses
WM Alliance Saw Mill Creek - More Creek Construction