Miller Run has been subjected to manipulation since the first settlers arrived, led by Ludwig Derr. He had purchased several tracts of land from William Penn in order to settle the area. According to Dr. Ben Hayes, who focuses on pre-colonial environmental impact as a field of research, he used the land for logging and building factories. Early on in the settlement, the area by the stream was used mostly for farming and was still heavily forested. However, by 1820 most of the forest in the area had been cut down. According to the 2011 Improvement Proposal for Miller Run created by members of the 2011 Geology 310 class, as farming increased, Miller run experienced “channel filling and straightening” in order to accommodate for more acreage. Hayes says that this is a result of industrial era policies of straightening and ditching, and damaged the river corridor in ways that are still evident today.
When Bucknell University was founded in 1846, the University was built adjacent to Miller Run. One of the academic buildings, The Art Building, was built on top of the stream. Before being used for art studios, the building was used to house the chemistry laboratories. This location was chosen so that after labs, chemical waste could be easily disposed of by dumping it into the stream.
Miller Run is a tributary to the Susquehanna River, which itself is a part of the Chesapeake Watershed. All chemicals that were dumped by Bucknell polluted not only Miller Run, but also the Susquehanna River and the Chesapeake Watershed.
Over the years, Bucknell University has also covered up, redirected, straightened, piped, and ditched Miller Run, drastically impacting the velocity of the stream’s water, as well as the life that it can sustain. Bucknell’s culture for groomed landscapes and expansive lawns damages the river corridor that the University is built on.
By the 1930s, Bucknell had built a golf course within the Miller Run watershed. In order to do so, sections of Miller Run were diverted into underground pipes. According to the 2011 Improvement Proposal for Miller Run, this decreased “habitat within the channel and further [removed] Miller Run from its natural equilibrium position. Hayes says that the slower a stream runs, the better it is for the inhabitants of the stream. Streams with higher velocity cause more erosion over time, and cannot support lifeforms that slower streams can.
Into the 1950s to present day, Miller Run was subjected to more modification. According to Hayes, sections of the river corridor were covered with coal ash fill, and trees alongside the stream were cut down. Due to these modifications, the position of Miller Run has greatly changed. Currently, Bucknell storm water systems are designed to carry excess water to Miller Run. According to Professor Matthew Mctammany, our storm water systems are highly efficient, but also highly damaging to Miller Run.
Usually, when a stream collects storm water,the water is collected in small streams upstream, which causes little impact to the rest of the stream. However, due to Bucknell’s draining system, Miller Run floods downstream instead. The water is delivered too quickly, he says. As storm-water is collected in pipes, it jets out into Miller Run at a high velocity. This floods the stream and causes erosion. Hayes says that the slower a stream runs, the better it is for the inhabitants of the stream. Streams with higher velocity cause more erosion over time, and cannot support lifeforms that slower streams can. He suggests as an alternative that storm water is collected at another site and then slowly drained into the stream.
While the storm water system by itself is damaging to the stream, its effect is compounded by other changes that Bucknell has made to the stream flow. As Mctammany says, the stream used to run naturally, and was made of multiple channels that sometimes combined to create a larger stream. According to a 2011 Improvement Proposal for Miller Run, Miller Run is an anastomosing stream, and some streams are only active during periods of high rain. This is no longer the case today.
Instead of being made up of several smaller streams, Miller Run is confined to one channel. Bucknell University redirected the flow of the water and confined the stream to a ditch, urbanizing it. A deep concrete channel with no vegetation and unnatural rocks was created. According to the 2011 Improvement Proposal, “channelization negatively impacts a stream’s ability to migrate naturally throughout a landscape setting.” The hard, concrete ditches created by Bucknell causes unnatural changes to the stream, impacting the health of the entire watershed.
Regarding the area of the stream that runs past Sojka Pavilion, the large field in front of the fieldhouse is artificial. Before Bucknell brought in fill to create the field, the land consisted of a wetland meadow. This wetland gave the stream space to breathe, and decreased the velocity of the stream water. Mctammany and Hayes agree that when Bucknell ditched the stream, the stream was confined and not given space to breathe. This increased flooding upstream in times of high rain, and steeply increased the gradient of the stream.
The urbanization of Miller Run affected stream health in other ways, as well. Today, the stream shows poor base flow and high sedimentation, and is usually either in a state of dryness or bank full. Near the downstream reaches of campus, parts of Miller Run often look like an ugly dry ditch. These periods of dryness do not support aquatic life, and negatively effect the stream’s ecosystem. Historic sources show that this was not always the case. According to the USGS, Miller Run used to flow perennially, or all-year-round. While Miller Run remains dry during the months of August, September, and into October, it floods easily during rainstorm. In the 2011 Improvement Proposal, the stream is described as “flashy,” which means that in times of high water volume, the flow peaks and falls rapidly. This is encouraged by the straightened channel and the fact that the storm drainage pipes on Bucknell’s campus empty into Miller Run. Confining the stream to a ditch also harmed its ability to catch storm water. Hayes says that this unsustainable pattern is harmful to both the University’s overall aesthetic value and to the biological habitat that Bucknell is built around.
Miller Run also has a very high sediment rate, in part due to human activity. Currently, the Chesapeake Bay is facing an increased amount of sediment flowing in from the Susquehanna River. An increased amount of sediment in the water clouds the water. This can kill underwater plants, smother oysters, and bind with contaminants that then contaminate fish and shellfish.
Currently, classes and groups on campus are working to restore Miller Run to its natural state. So far, attempts at restoration have been successful, and a detailed account of the restoration efforts can be found here.