The Catawissa Creak Watershed lies to the south of the glaciated portion of the state. The area encompasses the lithology of the Devonian, Mississippian, and Pennsylvanian time periods. During the Pennsylvanian Period, rocks intermixed with plant life were deposited, and with the addition of pressure and time, were converted into coal.
These layers were capped with hard congiomerate rock. The deeper valleys have eroded through these layers into brown and gray shale, which in some cases can be poorly drained.
The effect of the coal on the environment was not too crucial until the advent of deep mining operations with their discharges directly into the creek.