• The County Line Quarry in Wrightsville, Pennsylvania, contains several soil types.quarry image by Goran Bogicevic from Fotolia.com
  
  The County Line Quarry in Wrightsville, Pennsylvania, is located along the Susquehanna River, where it has provided York and Lancaster Counties with construction materials since 1929. The quarry offers lighter-weight quartz phyllite, sand, noncarbonate landfill stone and asphalt aggregates. These products reflect the soil composition of the quarry and its environs; the local predominant soil textures are highly stony silt loam, with bedrock at relatively shallow depths.
  
  

Mt. Airy Soil

• Mt. Airy soils typically form from micaceous crystalline rocks. Around the County Line Quarry, this soil mixture is approximately 56 percent Mt. Airy soils and 30 percent Manor soils; the remainder is an admixture of other soil types. Mt. Airy tends to be excessively drained, with a low to moderate transmission of water. Its water table is typically more than 80 inches deep. Mt. Airy soil has no tendency to flooding or ponding and has a very low level of available water. The top 8 inches of Mt. Airy soil tend to have a channery silt loam texture. ("Channery" means that the soil has many flat particles.) The next 26 inches are extremely channery loam, with an even admixture of sand, silt and clay textures. At a depth of 32 inches, bedrock begins.
  
  

Manor Soil

• Like Mt. Airy soil, Manor soil largely comes from mica schist. It typically extends 72 to 99 inches before hitting paralithic (loosely to moderately cemented) bedrock. The soil is well-drained with a moderate to high capacity to transmit water. The water table begins at depths of around 80 inches. There is no tendency towards flooding or ponding, and Manor soil has a high available water capacity. The top 8 inches are channery and loamy, like Mt. Airy soil, but Manor soil is less silty at its top layers. From 8 to 24 inches, it becomes channery silt loam, and from 24 to 60 inches, channery loam again.
  
  

Conestoga Silt Loams

• While Manor and Mt. Airy soils constitute the large majority of soil types in and around the County Line Quarry, other soils do exist. One of these is Conestoga silt loam, which derives from weathered limestone and weathered schist. It extends 60 to 99 inches, down to lithic bedrock. Conestoga soil is well-drained and has a fairly high capacity to transmit water. The water table begins at a depth of 80 inches; the soil has no tendency towards flooding or ponding. Like other soils found in the region, Conestoga is silty and loamy in texture. The top 10 inches are classified as silt loam, followed by a layer of silty clay loam extending from depths of 10 to 38 inches. Below that, channery loam extends down to the bedrock.