Butternut Creek (Onondaga County)
| Butternut Creek | |
 Butternut Creek at the Jamesville Road bridge
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| Country | United States |
|---|---|
| State | New York |
| Tributaries | |
| - left | Rush Creek (New York), Meadow Brook (New York) |
| - right | Cascades Creek |
| Source | Unnamed marsh |
| - location | Apuila Station |
| - elevation | 1,212 ft (369 m) |
| - coordinates | 42°49′25″N 76°04′22″W / 42.82361°N 76.07278°W |
| Mouth | Limestone Creek |
| - location | Minoa |
| - elevation | 387 ft (118 m) |
| - coordinates | 43°05′53″N 75°59′59″W / 43.09806°N 75.99972°WCoordinates: 43°05′53″N 75°59′59″W / 43.09806°N 75.99972°W |
| Length | 16 mi (26 km) |
| Discharge | for Jamesville |
| - average | 49.5 cu ft/s (1 m3/s) |
| - max | 2,820 cu ft/s (80 m3/s) |
| - min | 3.85 cu ft/s (0 m3/s) |
Butternut Creek is a stream in the greater Syracuse, New York area and a tributary of Limestone Creek, part of the Oneida Lake watershed. The creek is about 16 miles (26 km) long.
The creek begins in a marshy area at Apulia Station, near State Route 80, as the confluence of a few seasonal streams that drain the nearby Truxton, Jones and Fellows Hills. It flows north through a glacial valley into Jamesville Reservoir. Below Jamesville Reservoir it is joined by Rush Creek, flows through the village of Jamesville, past Clark Reservation State Park, and then under Interstate 481. The creek intersects the old Erie Canal at the Cedar Bay near DeWitt where it is also joined by Meadow Brook. The creek then flows past the CSX DeWitt rail yards and Interstate 90, turns east, and flows into Limestone Creek near Minoa.
The Butternut Creek watershed encompasses approximately 75 square miles (190 km2). There are 77.6 miles (124.9 km) of mapped streams within the watershed. Water quality in the Jamesville reach and above is considered good. However, the lower reaches of the creek are moderately affected by high nutrient levels from agriculture and urban runoff. The 100-year flood flow at Interstate 90 bridge is estimated at 4,306 cubic feet per second (121.9 m3/s).
The topography of the Butternut Creek watershed was sculpted by glaciers during the last Ice Age, During the glacial maximum, about 20,000 years ago, the whole area was covered by a thick ice sheet. As the ice retreated about 12,000 years ago during the , Glacial Lake Newbury was formed to the west, in the present-day Syracuse area. The lake was initially dammed on its east end by the hills between the Butternut and Onondaga Creek valleys. As meltwater filled the lake, it overflowed this ridge, turning what is now lower Butternut Creek into a large river, eventually connecting to the Mohawk–Hudson River river system. After the ice fully melted, the water drained northward into the Great Lakes and the Saint Lawrence River, leaving the now dry "Syracuse channels" – a series of large breaks between the Butternut and Onondaga valleys – and a 180 foot escarpment at Clark Reservation State Park, which was once a giant waterfall fed by glacier melt.
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Wikipedia