Johnny Williams
Freelance Journalist

The small town of Blossburg, Pennsylvania demonstrates the power of natural gas and the Marcellus Shale impact fee to revitalize small rural communities.

A brand new coffee shop sits at 242 Main Street in Blossburg, Pennsylvania. Only a couple weeks old, it was opened by Shane and Jill Nickerson, the mayor and borough council vice president of the town, respectfully. Walking into the shop douses you with that familiar coffee smell, and it resounds a modern yet local atmosphere. The ceiling is made of leftover sheet metal of a local Blossburg business; the walls are made of salvaged wood from the town’s former school. Even the shop’s tables are cut from a tree that had fallen down in the town’s park. In essence, the coffee shop is a perfect microcosm of what Blossburg is all about.

Shane and Jill Nickerson

For a bit of background and disclosure, I had the opportunity to visit Blossburg about a year and a half ago for the Northeast Driller, and it was a joy to hear and tell their story, because to me Blossburg brilliantly captured the opportunity that was the natural gas industry, and the town is a microcosm itself of the kind of opportunity that Marcellus Shale (and the Marcellus Shale impact fee) brought to Pennsylvania when it was desperately needed.

“The whole town was really feeling down, and our low point was probably when we lost our high school due to consolidation; that was a pretty big blow for us,” – Jill Nickerson, Northeast Driller

Then the impact fee, known as Act 13, which has annually raised roughly $250 million since 2012, was enacted, and Blossburg would immediately change. The town hired RETTEW to come up with a comprehensive plan to use the new funds to the maximum effect.

“Once we started to get Act 13 funds, the logical thing to start with was planning… Planning wasn’t really a strength of ours,” (Shane) Nickerson said. “We’re not a town of planners, we’re a town of doers,” – Northeast Driller

The plan proved so successful that Blossburg was awarded the Champion of the Pennsylvania Wilds – Great Design Award, in May. Fast forward to today, and Blossburg is as determined and busy as ever.

“Act 13 has been absolutely huge,” Shane Nickerson said. “It’s behind the development of our comprehensive plan and strategy, our water infrastructure projects, the borough garage, community projects and events.”

“The gas industry is kind of in a downturn right now, but I think our community took the right approach and capitalized on Act 13 while we could,” he continued. “The biggest thing about the impact fee is that it stayed here; if that went into something like the General Fund we might not see that again. Our local officials and our commissioners have been on top of that and doing a good job.”

Being a town of doers, the impact fee, along with support from the gas industry, as allowed Blossburg to finally work on projects that have been 20 years or longer in the making. One of those projects, cleaning the Tioga River, which runs through Blossburg, of coal mining pollution, was aided by Southwestern Energy.

“Without Southwestern Energy, this project would not have happened,” Shane Nickerson said, “Some people might think these companies do these things for good PR and maybe that does come with it, but the people of Southwestern genuinely feel a responsibility to the environment and have been excellent stewards of the community.”

The project is known as the Fall Brook AMD Treatment and Restoration Project, according to Southwestern Energy spokesman Mike Narcavage.

With the combined efforts of a group of Partners the Fall Brook acid mine drainage remediation project in the Tioga River Watershed is becoming a reality. The project will provide clean water into the Susquehanna River Basin and ultimately the Chesapeake Bay. Southwestern Energy (SWN) has taken a lead role in the partnership and agreed to fund and oversee the construction of the Fall Brook project. SWN has also contributed funds to establish a trust dedicated to funding ongoing maintenance and operations.

The Upper Tioga River Watershed, located in North Central Pennsylvania, is severely impacted by acid mine drainage (AMD). From Fall Brook to Bear Creek to the Tioga/Hammond Dam Complex, the waterway is acidic with excessive concentrations of iron, manganese and aluminum. There is little to no aquatic life and the stream bed is stained orange from iron oxide as it weaves its way through the towns of Blossburg, Covington and Mansfield. – Information submitted by SWN

According to Narcavage, the Fall Brook project is part of a greater SWN initiative known as ECH2O, which sets SWN’s sights on being water neutral by next year by offsetting water use in its operations by creating and building conservation projects throughout the region.

“The Fallbrook project and ECH2O in general are really and innovative and exciting projects for SWN,” Narcavage said. “We are an industry leader in conservation and living up to the R2 part of our formula by being the Right People doing the Right Things. We had great partners with the Blossburg project, the main partners are: The Tioga County Concerned Citizens, The Tioga County Conservation District, DEP and the SRBC.”

Another water project that has been spurred because of the gas industry that Blossburg has undertaken is that of infrastructure, which Shane Nickerson noted was also long overdue.

“As I’m sure many local Pennsylvanians know, water infrastructure is typically a problem,” he said. “But in this region where there have been several new local natural gas-related businesses opening; they need water. So we have developed a local water authority and are in the process of doing feasibility studies to make that happen. This is another endeavor that we’ve been trying to do for 20 years, and these new gas businesses have pushed the development of water infrastructure because they need it to operate, and we need to meet those needs so we can keep those regained local businesses.”

The gas industry has been nothing short of a shot in the arm to Blossburg, whether it be from Act 13, new businesses or direct industry support, and Shane Nickerson pointed to the community’s history as a coal mining town; how its generations are rich with people that aren’t afraid to do things for their community, and how that history has led to the “doer” mindset that the town still has today.

“There’s no doubt that the coal mining industry was environmentally devastating, but without coal, Blossburg doesn’t exist.” he said. “So we’re on a mission to do as much as we can while the gas industry is here to give us that opportunity. This is what I think Act 13 was meant for, to see communities work together to build and upgrade. Southwestern Energy has blown my mind with their support; we can’t say how grateful we are. And the people of our community have been instrumental in developing what we’ve done so far and what we will do, and we welcome future entrepreneurship. Community-wise, I think we’ve taken full advantage of this opportunity and we want to keep doing that.”