The last big piece needed for the restoration of the Tioga River restoration is now in place.
The Pa. Department of Environmental Protection’s Abandoned Mine Lands and Acid Mine Drainage Grant Program awarded $68,255,481 to the Susquehanna River Basin Commission to construct an active treatment plant in the Tioga River Watershed.
The project is big in price, scope and results. When complete, it will clean and restore aquatic life to 20 miles of the Tioga River, which is listed as impaired by DEP and devoid of fish.
The $68 million will go toward a system that will collect acid mine drainage from five locations, transport it to a treatment facility, then return the treated water to the tributaries that flow into the river. A remnant of historic coal mining, the AMD discharges are located along Coal Creek, Fall Brook and Morris Run.
Coal Creek is the largest contributor to AMD, said Andrew King from the SRBC. Flowing from an old mine opening, the discharge dumps about 2.5 million gallons per day containing about 400 pounds each of iron and aluminum.
“These discharges are the reason why there are no fish around Blossburg,” King said.
Suspended iron and aluminum in water will kill fish and inhibit plant growth necessary for fish habitat. As the acidity rises in water, the iron and aluminum precipitate, or form solids which settle on the creek bed.
“That is when you start to see the orange in the Tioga,” King said.
In addition, the treatment facility will also take from an existing passive treatment system. That system is currently trying to treat more water than it was designed to treat, he said. Most of the water will be treated at the new facility, although the older one will remain active and be there in case it is needed.
The discharges and water from the current treatment system account for more than five million gallons of water each day. The new plant is designed to treat up to 15 million gallons per day.
In one year, it should remove an estimated 2,000 tons of acid, 130 tons of iron and 170 tons of aluminum, depending on the amount of rain and snowmelt received in that time, King said.
The system is also dual train, essentially two plants in one. One system can treat all the water while the other is offline for maintenance or repairs. During high flows, both trains will be running.
News of the funding was expected, but still good news for local groups involved in the project.
Charlie and Joyce Andrews are members of the Tioga County Concerned Citizens Committee, the organization that has spearheaded the effort to restore the river for many years,
The design is well underway, with a right-of-way secured to the plant that will be located on State Forest Lands, 11 miles of piping is planned and now the funding is procured, said the Andrews.
“It’s an expensive project but it recovers all of the Tioga River that has been polluted and impacts the dam,” said Joyce Andrews.
The SRBC hired Kleinfelder Engineering to design the plant, which is about 90% complete, said Andrew King with the SRBC. The treatment facility will resemble a wastewater treatment plant, but instead of treating sewage it will treat AMD.
Construction of the plant will begin later this year and should take about 18 months to complete. The plant is expected to begin operations in early 2026 and its impact will be seen immediately.
“It’s amazing how fast it happens,” King said. “So the water quality is going to be better in a day. Your fish right now when you have a storm, they wash in from the tributaries and immediately swim back to where they came from because the Tioga can’t support life there. Once it’s treated and they wash in, they are going to have a place where there’s less competition for food and start colonizing the Tioga.”
Rain storms and the moving water will scour out the orange iron and aluminum, King said. Plants and insect life will soon follow. The Pa. Fish and Boat Commission is also planning to stock trout there once the plant is operational. The Northcentral Pennsylvania Conservancy, which secured property for the right-of-way to the plant, plans to install fish habitat structures along Island Park in Blossburg.
“It’s gonna be a beautiful river,” King said.
It will also have a positive impact downstream at the Tioga-Hammond Lakes. Currently, the Hammond Reservoir is elevated above the water level of the Tioga Reservoir, where the Tioga River empties. The impaired water from the Tioga River is mixed with the healthy water of Hammond Lake to maintain water quality to sustain fish and other life.
Once the plant is operational, it will free nearly one billion gallons of water that…
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