Montour Run

Montour Run
Montour Run looking upstream near its mouth in Rupert
Basin features
Main source	western Montour Township, Columbia County, Pennsylvania
River mouth	Fishing Creek in eastern Montour Township, Columbia County, Pennsylvania
Progression	Fishing Creek Susquehanna River Chesapeake Bay
Basin size	4.7 sq mi (12 km2)
Physical characteristics
Length	3.1 mi (5.0 km)

Montour Run is a tributary of Fishing Creek in Columbia County, Pennsylvania. It is the last named tributary to join the creek and is 3.1 miles (5.0 km) long. The stream's watershed has an area of approximately 4.7 square miles and is located in Montour Township, Columbia County and Cooper Township, Montour County. The annual load of sediment in the watershed is 4,248,000 pounds (1,927,000 kg), most of which comes from agricultural lands. Minnows live in the stream.

A. Joseph Armstrong called the stream "undistinguished" and "not an impressive stream" in his book Trout Unlimited's Guide to Pennsylvania Limestone Streams.

Montour Run begins in the western reaches of Montour Township, near the western edge of Columbia County. The headwaters are slightly south of U.S. Route 11 and near the community of Grovania. The stream flows east for a short distance and passes a landing strip, roughly following U.S. Route 11, before turning east-southeast and receiving an unnamed tributary from a quarry. Shortly after receiving the tributary, it turns east-northeast and then east. After a short distance, it turns northeast, continuing to follow U.S. Route 11. The stream passes through a pond and crosses under Pennsylvania Route 42 before turning east-southeast and reaching its confluence with Fishing Creek near Rupert.

The daily sediment load in Montour Run is 11,638 pounds (5,279 kg). This equates to 4,248,000 pounds (1,927,000 kg) per year. A 28.2% reduction in the load would be required for the stream to meet the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection's standards.

Of the 4,248,000 pounds (1,927,000 kg) of sediment that flows through Montour Run per year, 3,550,800 pounds (1,610,600 kg) per year comes from croplands. 271,400 pounds (123,100 kg) comes from hay and pastures, 224,800 pounds (102,000 kg) comes from stream banks, and 109,400 pounds (49,600 kg) comes from land classified as "transition" by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. Annually, 46,600 pounds (21,100 kg) of sediment in the stream comes from land classified as "low-intensity development" by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and 45,000 pounds (20,000 kg) per year comes from forests. No sediment in the watershed comes from wetlands.