An Environmental Win for Monroe County: Tunkhannock Creek Protected From Mega-Warehouse Pollution Runoff

Thursday, March 5, 2026, Tunkhannock Township, Monroe County, PA — The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) denied Route 115 Associates’ National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit application to build a mega-warehouse in Tunkhannock Township, PA. The proposed 803,000 SF distribution center and twenty acres of asphalt parking and its related infrastructure would have cut and paved forests within an important pristine fishery of the Pocono Plateau.  

DEP’s permit denial comes after more than four years of watchdogging and opposition from grass roots and environmental groups, collaborating as part of the Our Pocono Waters campaign, as development continues to pressure some of the most pristine special protection waters and recreationally important habitats of the Poconos region.

“The DEP listened to the overwhelming opposition and science, did the right thing and finally said “NO” to a poorly-sited warehouse development proposed by Route 115 Associates that would have paved over more than forty acres of diverse forested habitat, jeopardizing the Exceptional Value Tunkhannock Creek and Exceptional Value wetlands of Keiper Run that flows into the Tunkhannock Creek,” said Geoff Rogalsky, President, Tobyhanna Creek/Tunkhannock Creek Watershed Association.

“The Tunkhanna Fishing Association has been a steward of the Tunkhannock Creek for 134 years, and our entire membership is grateful for the efforts of the environmental organizations to provide the support to review this development application,” said Art Bernardon, president of Tunkhanna Fishing Association. “The efforts of Abby Jones and Brigitte Meyer along with their associates at PennFuture were invaluable throughout the entire review process. They have provided much needed support to protect a valuable watershed resource.”

Residents and watershed groups first raised awareness at the municipal level of the warehouse project and its potential impact on Exceptional Value Tunkhannock Creek and nearby wetlands in 2022. On March 2, 2023, Route 115 Associates submitted its NPDES permit application to DEP. For the next three years, the developer attempted, and failed, to design stormwater controls that would adequately protect the quality of Exceptional Value waters that would receive the stormwater runoff from the project. 
“Public comment periods were announced, water groups called for extensions and public hearings and people showed up in mass — mobilizing hundreds of written comment and testimony that called out the inadequacies and harms this warehouse project would inflict on the Exceptional Value Tunkhannock Creek,” said Maya K. van Rossum, the Delaware Riverkeeper, Delaware Riverkeeper Network. “Advocates urged the DEP to stop wasting its limited time on a bad application and to deny the permit once and for all to protect the Tunkhannock Creek community from cumulative harm as required under Article 1 Section 27 of the Pennsylvania Constitution.”   

DEP agreed with the public. With more than two dozen technical deficiencies still remaining after three years’ worth of deficiency letters and revisions, it denied the application.  

"The developer’s permit application was rife with technical errors, and despite numerous efforts by DEP engineers to shepherd the developer in the direction of needed corrections, they were unable to prove that the project could be built without degrading the nearby Exceptional Value waters,” said Brigitte Meyer, staff attorney for PennFuture. “Our hope is that DEP will continue to deny applications like this, where developers cannot demonstrate within a reasonable amount of time that their project won’t harm our Exceptional Value waters, and will avoid wasting resources on them in the future.” 
              
The developer has until March 26 to appeal the denial to the Environmental Hearing Board.  

The environmental and watershed groups will continue to track other development proposals that pose risks to the ecosystem and health to neighboring communities.