SCRANTON — Pennsylvania American Water completed a $618,000 project to improve public access and aquatic habitat in a stretch of Roaring Brook along Richter Avenue in East Scranton, including construction of a disabled-accessible fishing platform.
The new deck along a bend in the waterway was built where Nay Aug Park’s Davis Trail meets Richter Avenue.
“This is a safer way to access the fishing spot,” PAW spokeswoman Susan Turcmanovich said Monday during a visit of the site with PAW Engineering Director Daniel Rickard, Lackawanna River Conservation Association Executive Director Tara Jones and Trout Unlimited’s Lackawanna Valley Chapter board member Emily Baldauff.
The water company also improved the banks of Roaring Brook at nearby Darcy Park across from the East Scranton Little League fields. The overall project took place on both sides of the Myrtle Street bridge over Roaring Brook, with Darcy Park situated between the bridge and Ash Street, and the new platform situated on the other side of the bridge at the northern end of Nay Aug Park.
Work began in August and wrapped up a few weeks ago, Turcmanovich said.
The project stemmed from an agreement reached last year between the state Department of Environmental Protection and PAW after the water company inadvertently released large quantities of silt and sediment from the No. 7 Reservoir Dam rehabilitation project upstream in Dunmore in February 2024.
In March 2024, the DEP determined the silt pollution in Roaring Brook violated state law and regulations and the excessive silt significantly impaired Roaring Brook, nearly wiping out macroinvertebrates by 90-95% in some areas by burying stream-bottom habitats in sandy silt up to 3½ feet deep.
A corrective-action project along Richter Avenue also involved: restoration and regrading of 580 feet of streambank along Roaring Brook in Darcy Park; relocation of the existing walking path to the top of a newly shaped bank; converting a cliff into more of a gentle slope with shrubs and trees planted there; installation of terraced steps in the slope for access to the water’s edge; placement of boulders in the stream channel to enhance the aquatic habitat; planting of native trees and shrubs; and creation of a rock bank retaining wall along 70 feet of the stream to prevent erosion.
The project resulted in some of the most significant improvements in the streambank and public access in that area in many years.
“We’re happy with the way this turned out. It’s really nice,” Jones said.
Fishing enthusiasts hope for positive impacts on aquatic habitats.
“It’s a little too soon to tell, but it looks pretty good,” Baldauff said. “The habitat structures they did look really nice.”
Roaring Brook is a tributary of the Lackawanna River that feeds the Susquehanna River, which empties into the Chesapeake Bay.
Monitoring of Roaring Brook’s water quality also continues, and the dam project upstream is almost complete, Turcmanovich said.
The city continues to own the land where the project occurred and now also owns the improvements undertaken by the water company.
From left: Tara B. Jones, Lackawanna River Conservation Association; Emily Baldauff, Lackawanna Valley Trout Unlimited board member, and Daniel Rickard, Pennsylvania America Water, Stop for a photo as the they unveil the completed disabled-accessible fishing platform on Roaring Brook in East Scranton. The project, which began in Aug. where Nay Aug Park’s Davis Trail meets Richter Avenue, stemmed from an upstream dam project’s inadvertent muddying of the creek in 2024. (CHAD SEBRING/STAFF PHOTO)
Pennsylvania American Water has completed construction of a disabled-accessible fishing platform on Roaring Brook in East Scranton. The project, which began in Aug. where Nay Aug Park’s Davis Trail meets Richter Avenue, stemmed from an upstream dam project’s inadvertent muddying of the creek in 2024. (CHAD SEBRING/STAFF PHOTO)
Pennsylvania American Water has completed construction of a disabled-accessible fishing platform on Roaring Brook in East Scranton. The project, which began in Aug. where Nay Aug Park’s Davis Trail meets Richter Avenue, stemmed from an upstream dam project’s inadvertent muddying of the creek in 2024. (CHAD SEBRING/STAFF PHOTO)
Pennsylvania American Water has completed construction of a disabled-accessible fishing platform on Roaring Brook in East Scranton. The project, which began in Aug. where Nay Aug Park’s Davis Trail meets Richter Avenue, stemmed from an upstream dam project’s inadvertent muddying of the creek in 2024. (CHAD SEBRING/STAFF PHOTO)
Pennsylvania American Water has completed construction of a disabled-accessible fishing platform on Roaring Brook in East Scranton. The project, which began in Aug. where Nay Aug Park’s Davis Trail meets Richter Avenue, stemmed from an upstream dam project’s inadvertent muddying of the creek in 2024. (CHAD SEBRING/STAFF PHOTO)
A plague affixed to a stone at John M. Darcy Park. Pennsylvania American Water has completed construction of a disabled-accessible fishing platform on Roaring Brook in East Scranton. The project, which began in Aug. where Nay Aug Park’s Davis Trail meets Richter Avenue, stemmed from an upstream dam project’s inadvertent muddying of the creek in 2024. (CHAD SEBRING/STAFF PHOTO)
A man fishes along Roaring Brook on Monday morning. Pennsylvania American Water has completed construction of a disabled-accessible fishing platform on Roaring Brook in East Scranton. The project, which began in Aug. where Nay Aug Park’s Davis Trail meets Richter Avenue, stemmed from an upstream dam project’s inadvertent muddying of the creek in 2024. (CHAD SEBRING/STAFF PHOTO)
Pennsylvania American Water has completed a $618,000 project to improve public access and aquatic habitat in a stretch of Roaring Brook along Richter Avenue in East Scranton, including construction of a disabled-accessible fishing platform where Nay Aug Park’s Davis Trail meets Richter Avenue. Photo taken Monday, Nov. 3, 2025. (JIM LOCKWOOD / STAFF PHOTO)
Pennsylvania American Water has completed a $618,000 project to improve public access and aquatic habitat in a stretch of Roaring Brook along Richter Avenue in East Scranton, including construction of a disabled-accessible fishing platform where Nay Aug Park’s Davis Trail meets Richter Avenue. Photo taken Monday, Nov. 3, 2025. (JIM LOCKWOOD / STAFF PHOTO)
Pennsylvania American Water has completed a $618,000 project to improve public access and aquatic habitat in a stretch of Roaring Brook along Richter Avenue in East Scranton, including construction of a disabled-accessible fishing platform where Nay Aug Park’s Davis Trail meets Richter Avenue. Photo taken Monday, Nov. 3, 2025, shows the Myrtle Street Bridge in background. (JIM LOCKWOOD / STAFF PHOTO)
From left, Lackawanna River Conservation Association Executive Director Tara Jones, Lackawanna Valley Chapter of Trout Unlimited board member Emily Baldauff and Pennsylvania American Water Engineering Director Daniel Rickard, pose for a photo Monday, Nov. 3, 2025 at a new disabled-accessible fishing platform that PAW built along Roaring Brook in Scranton. (JIM LOCKWOOD / STAFF PHOTO)
A plaque on a boulder on Monday, Nov. 3, 2025 at Darcy Park on Richter Avenue in Scranton, also called the John M. Darcy Park, which is named for the former Scranton resident who died in 2020 at age 81 while living in Florida. A native of Massachusetts, Darcy served in the United States Marine Corps and later worked in industrial managerial work in Scranton, according to his obituary in the archives of The Times-Tribune. In the 1980s and beyond, Darcy worked in construction management and built and restored a number of buildings in and around the Scranton area. He also loved nature and the outdoors and enjoyed hiking, skiing, boating and swimming in Northeast Pennsylvania and beyond. (JIM LOCKWOOD / STAFF PHOTO)
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From left: Tara B. Jones, Lackawanna River Conservation Association; Emily Baldauff, Lackawanna Valley Trout Unlimited board member, and Daniel Rickard, Pennsylvania America Water, Stop for a photo as the they unveil the completed disabled-accessible fishing platform on Roaring Brook in East Scranton. The project, which began in Aug. where Nay Aug Park’s Davis Trail meets Richter Avenue, stemmed from an upstream dam project’s inadvertent muddying of the creek in 2024. (CHAD SEBRING/STAFF PHOTO)