Not All Headwaters Rise In the Natural Way: Forest Hills Run Is Born From Parking Lots And Detention Basins

By Carol Hillestad for Brodhead Watershed Association, Monroe County

 

When you think about the headwaters of the lovely Brodhead Creek, idyllic scenes of pristine, bubbling water flowing through untouched wetlands and woods may come to mind. 

The very word “headwaters” is musical.

Yet some of our headwaters creeks rise in far less romantic surroundings. 

The waters of little Forest Hills Run, for instance, are born from enormous parking lots and detention basins.

When it was built in 1990, the Mount Pocono Plaza was anchored by K-Mart. Today, warehouses, big-box stores, and other new buildings along Route 940, have multiplied the paved, impervious surfaces many times over. 

Rain and snowmelt scour across the parking lots, roadways and rooftops, carrying residue of oil and gasoline, dirt, salt, debris--  all kinds of pollutants-- and dumping them into detention basins. 

The outflows from those basins and parking lots gather and coalesce to become Forest Hills Run.

The little creek slips down from Mount Pocono, past the Borough’s sewage treatment plant, under Route 611, and through Mount Airy’s expansive grounds. 

Then, after a free-running stretch of undeveloped woods, it flows into the Swiftwater Creek and joins the Paradise.

It wasn’t always this way, of course. 

Before the shopping plaza paved over those many acres of the Plateau, the creek arose in wetlands. 

Many small rivulets gathered and mingled to form Forest Hills Run on its way through forested land to the Paradise.

But the landscape has changed, to say the least. Only citizen oversight, enforcing stormwater controls, and constant monitoring have protected the creek so far. 

 It takes persistence. Continued advocacy and pressure on politicians and businesses is essential to keep the waters of Forest Hills Run-- and other creeks in the Brodhead watershed — from being degraded. 

Environmental champions have a saying: no success is permanent. Just when you thought it was safe to breathe easy, another toxic cloud appears on the horizon.  

For the moment, Forest Hills Run is in good shape. 

For the long term, vigilance is required to keep it that way.

Brodhead Watershed Association protects water quality and quantity throughout our area. Get involved! Become a member! 

Related Article This Week:

-- Protecting Clean Water Together: Trout Unlimited - It's More Than Just Fishing - By Carol Hillestad for Brodhead Watershed Association, Monroe County [PaEN]  

[Posted: June 1, 2026]  PA Environment Digest