I did not know the West Branch of the Susquehanna River like that. We called it the "shit creek." Once when I was delivering newspapers I stopped on a little bridge and looked down at a tributary, one leading from "Number Nine," that flowed into the river. I saw a big log of stool followed by toilet paper float by. Besides human waste the river was polluted by waste water from the coal mines that kept it from freezing. The river never froze and was a yellow-orange color when I grew up there in the 1960's and '70's. My father once asked me to trace the source of the mine pollution and write about it for his newspaper. He told me to follow the river by crossing bridges until it turned clear and then to get out of my car and walk it to the source. (I did.) I found mine water gushing up from underground and flowing into river. In one direction the river water was as pristine as my grandmother describes it. In the other, the mine water merged with the river water.  The mine water was a milky green and for a short distance the river was visibly divided between this milky green and the steely clear river water. Quickly the mine water subsumed the river water. From that point on the river was dead. The source of the pollution was a "monkey dump" of an abandoned coal mine belonging to a defunct coal mining company."Monkey dump" is the name as I remember it now but in googling the term, I can find no direct reference.