A Pennsylvania lawmaker from the Pocono Mountains introduced legislation that would require wetland restoration to occur within the same local watershed where environmental damage takes place.
Citing impacts of an Interstate 80 project in her district as well as data centers, state Rep. Tarah Probst said she is looking to address concerns that distant mitigation efforts fail to protect communities losing critical water resources.
The Monroe and Pike County Democrat filed House Bill 2296 as she says the I-80 reconstruction threatens wetlands across her district.
The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation has proposed offsetting that damage through a mitigation bank in Damascus Township, Wayne County, more than 60 miles from the affected areas and outside the local Upper Brodhead Watershed.
“We are taking water protections away from one community and handing them to another,” Probst said. “You can call it mitigation, but to the people who live here, it feels like theft.”