SUN-GAZETTE FILE PHOTO Flooding damage along Little Pine Creek in August of 2024.

During the flooding at Trout Run in August, the sheer volume and force of the floodwaters realigned the stream, producing gravel and sand bars that could endanger the small community next time around.

For state Sen. Gene Yaw, R-Loyalsock Township, being chair of the Senate Environmental Resources & Energy Committee is an opportunity to address clean stream legislation – to give municipalities the authority to clean them out and prevent future damage from floodwaters.

“We have had some storms lately where streams have moved 100 yards,” Yaw said during a recent media briefing in his office where he discussed the committee’s goals for the year.

Two bills that came out of the committee directly involve stream cleaning. They are Senate Bill 403 and 404.

S.B. 403 gives the municipalities the option to apply to the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) for a 10-year permit to take care and maintain a stream or part of a stream, he said. The state Department of Transportation (PennDOT) and conservation districts would also have the ability to apply for the permit.

The other bill, S.B. 404 would permit municipalities in consultation with the conservation districts to reconstruct streams in an emergency situation, Yaw said.

He added that Gov. Josh Shapiro’s administration is “at least neutral” on the bill. He is hopeful his colleagues in the General Assembly will pass them in a bipartisan way and will go to the governor’s desk.

Oddly, as soon as one crosses the border into Pennsylvania – any kind of stream cleaning seems to be a “no no,” said Yaw, who also sits on the Chesapeake Bay Commission.

As a voice for the communities on the watersheds that impact the bay, including for the farmers and agricultural businesses in the five counties in north-central Pennsylvania that he represents, Yaw acknowledged the irony of Pennsylvania compared to neighboring New York or Maryland.

In Maryland, officials there talk about dredging the bay and keeping the channel cleaned out, while in New York – during August, 2024, flood aftermath, communities had equipment and machines in their streams already working to keep them from flooding again.

“All this legislation would do is authorize municipalities to put streams back where the original location was, a small step in the right direction,” Yaw said.