Creek [noun]

The creek near my home is modest compared to some of the waterways I’ve loved in the past.

The creek, which in the 1800s ran miles from the Temblor Mountains to the then-vast Buena Vista Lake, is now dry most of the year.

With CalGEM’s approval, companies turned these into de facto — but permanent — production sites, even in creeks and ravines supposedly protected by environmental laws.

Under state laws, it’s illegal to discharge any hazardous substance into a creek or streambed, dry or not.

Despite the site’s long and dirty history, the water Kinder Morgan treats at its facility in Murray Canyon is good enough to throw back into the local creek – part of its remediation plan approved by the local water quality board.

In a minute Bruce was back with his hat full of water from the creek that whimpered just beyond the willow patch.

About three o'clock, as nearly as I could tell, we dipped into a wooded creek bottom some two hundred yards in width.

I swung down from my horse on the brink of the creek, cinched the saddle afresh, and rolled a cigarette.

Near noon I found a place where they'd cached two extra horses in the brush on Sage Creek.

At times the creek was as wide as an ordinary river, at others so contracted that one could gather grass on either side.