I-80 Expansion Threatens Wetlands — and the Fix Is 50 Miles Away in Wayne County

PennDOT’s $935 million plan to widen Interstate 80 in Stroudsburg is triggering a wave of environmental concerns — not just in Monroe County, but 50 miles north in rural Damascus Township, Pennsylvania. To move the highway from four lanes to six, PennDOT says it must destroy wetlands along a 3.5-mile stretch of I-80. Instead of restoring wetlands locally, the agency is buying mitigation credits from a private restoration project in Wayne County.“They’re connected through the wetlands in both places,” said Liam Mayo, news editor for the River Reporter. “The way they’re going to make up for that is by buying… mitigation credits in a project that is happening in Damascus Township.”Why the Wetlands Are Being “Moved”The restoration work is being done by Resource Environmental Solutions (RES), a national company that builds large-scale mitigation banks. RES plans to restore or enhance 30 acres of wetlands and about 13,000 feet of stream in Damascus.Mayo said the regulatory system allows this long-distance swap: “It feels like it shouldn’t make sense, but this is the way the system was set up to work.”Environmental Groups: “You Can’t Replace Our Watershed Somewhere Else”Local advocates in Stroudsburg say the mitigation bank won’t help the Brodhead Watershed, where the ecological damage will occur.“The ecological functions, values and benefits of water resources within the Broadhead Watershed cannot be replaced elsewhere,” said Stephanie Uhranowsky of the Brodhead Watershed Association. “Mitigation outside the watershed provides no benefit to the Brodhead Creek.”“I don’t think that it takes a rocket scientist to know that the Brodhead Watershed versus the Delaware Watershed are two different ecologies,” state representative Tarah Probst told the River Reporter. “They are over an hour away. You can’t just pick up species and soils and habitation and vegetation and move them and think you’re going to have the same results.”Surprise Construction in DamascusMeanwhile, Damascus residents were stunned to see excavation equipment suddenly appear on private property. Mayo said one homeowner called the River Reporter fearing a fracking operation.Probst has appealed the project’s permit, arguing there should have been public hearings in both communities.Damascus Township Supervisor Stephen Adams defended the project: “Finding land that can be used to create wetland areas is very hard… There are only two options for the state and the feds — either purchase it or not recreate it at all.”A Bigger Fight Over How Wetland Banking WorksThe dispute highlights a statewide question: Should wetlands destroyed in one watershed be replaced in a completely different one?Mayo said the tension boils down to scale: “There’s the fear that a mitigation project could technically check all the boxes… but in five years’ time be just a washed-out streambed.”More at riverreporter.com.