West Branch Rausch Creek

West Branch Rausch Creek is a tributary of Rausch Creek in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania. It is approximately 3.7 mi long and flows through Hegins Township. The watershed of the creek has an area of 4.78 sqmi. The creek is designated as an impaired waterbody due to metals from abandoned mine drainage. It has no named tributaries.

West Branch Rausch Creek primarily flows through a valley between two mountains: Bear Mountain and Big Lick Mountain. The dominant land use in the watershed of the creek is deciduous forest, although there are more than 100 acre each of mixed forest and disturbed land. Mining has been done in the watershed, and two mine pools are present within its boundaries, though one discharges into another watershed. At least one bridge has been constructed across the creek.

Course
West Branch Rausch Creek begins in a large valley between Bear Mountain and Big Lick Mountain, in Hegins Township, near the Schuylkill County/Dauphin County line. It flows east-northeast for several tenths of a mile before passing through a wetland. From the eastern edge of the wetland, the creek continues flowing east-northeast for more than a mile. It then turns northeast for a few tenths of a mile, passing through two ponds, reaching the end of its valley, and joining East Branch Rausch Creek to form Rausch Creek.

West Branch Rausch Creek joins Rausch Creek 1.67 mi upstream of its mouth.

Hydrology
The entire length of West Branch Rausch Creek is designated as an impaired waterbody. The cause of the impairment is metals and the probable source is abandoned mine drainage. Despite being impacted by abandoned mine drainage, the creek is not impacted by sediment, unlike the nearby East Branch Rausch Creek.

The average discharge of West Branch Rausch Creek near its mouth is 4100000 gal per day. The pH of the creek has been measured to range from 6.1 to 6.5, with an average of 6.3. The alkalinity concentration ranged from 19.0 to 30.0 mg/L, with an average of 25.5 mg/L.

The iron concentration in West Branch Rausch Creek near its mouth ranges from 9.54 to 26.80 mg/L, with an average of 15.14 mg/L. The concentration of manganese ranges from 1.19 to 1.89 mg/L, with an average of 1.62 mg/L. The aluminum concentration ranges between less than 0.2 mg/L and 1.02 mg/L, and averages 0.37 mg/L.

The iron load of West Branch Rausch Creek requires a 94 percent reduction to meet the total maximum daily load requirements for the creek. However, the manganese and aluminum loads only require 55 percent and 28 percent reductions, respectively.

The total sediment load in West Branch Rausch Creek is 9300750.0 lb per year, considerably less than in East Branch Rausch Creek. The largest contributor of sediment to West Branch Rausch Creek is disturbed land, which accounts for 7104785.3 lb per year, while the second-largest contributor is deciduous forest, accounting for 1694107.5 lb. Annually, cropland accounts for 343104.8 lb, unpaved roads contribute 151860.1 lb of sediment, mixed forest contributes 6480.6 lb, and coniferous forest contributes 411.7 lb. Hay and pastures contribute no sediment to the creek.

Geography and geology
The elevation near the mouth of West Branch Rausch Creek is 879 ft above sea level. The elevation near the creek's source is 1194 ft above sea level.

West Branch Rausch Creek drains an area of land between Bear Mountain and Big Lick Mountain. A mine pool known as the Williamstown-Lykens pool is located in the western portion of the creek's watershed. However, it does not discharge in the watershed, but instead discharges into the watershed of Wiconisco Creek via the Big Lick Tunnel. Another mine pool, the Brookside Mine pool, is located in the watershed of West Branch Rausch Creek and actually does discharge into the creek at 915 ft above sea level, via the Valley View Tunnel. The discharge of this pool ranges from 700000 to 5200000 gal per day, with an average of 2840000 gal per day, making it the largest single source of water and abandoned mine drainage in the watershed.

Some small deep mines and strip mines line the mountain slopes to the north and south of West Branch Rausch Creek. The significant majority of these have not been reclaimed.

Watershed and biology
The watershed of West Branch Rausch Creek has an area of 4.78 sqmi. The creek is entirely within the United States Geological Survey quadrangle of Tower City. Its mouth is located near Tower City.

The dominant land use in the watershed of West Branch Rausch Creek is deciduous forest, which accounts for 2658.8 acre of the watershed's 2960.3 acre. The second-largest and third-largest land uses are disturbed land and mixed forest, which account for 126.0 and 116.1 acre, respectively. Cropland occupies 29.7 acre of the watershed, while coniferous forest occupies 17.3 acre. Unpaved roads occupy 7.4 acre, while hay/pastures occupy 4.9 acre.

West Branch Rausch Creek flows through a swamp in its upper reaches. This swamp is situated in Pennsylvania State Game Lands.

The designated use for West Branch Rausch Creek is aquatic life. The creek is classified as a Coldwater Fishery.

History
West Branch Rausch Creek was entered into the Geographic Names Information System on August 2, 1979. Its identifier in the Geographic Names Information System is 1190927.

A concrete slab bridge carrying Bear Valley Road was constructed across West Branch Rausch Creek in 1973 and is 25.9 ft long.

In 1996, two companies—Wenrich Coal Co. and D. and F. Deep Mine Coal Co.—applied for renewal of permits for existing anthracite deep mine operations for which the receiving waterbody was West Branch Rausch Creek. One company has a deep mining permit allowing it to discharge into the creek, as of 2001. However, this discharge is only intermittent.

In 2015, Pennsylvania State Game Lands 264 received an additional tract of 86 acre near the headwaters of West Branch Rausch Creek from PPL Corporation.