Choose Clean Water Coalition: Legislative Recommendations To Protect Pennsylvania's Waterways For The Future - Agriculture, Abandoned Mines, PFAS, Lead, A.I. Data Centers

The Choose Clean Water Coalition, Coalition for the Delaware River Watershed, and PennFuture now have available the 2026 State Legislator's Guide To Protecting Pennsylvania's Waterways For The Future.

The Guide highlights solutions to legacy pollution like abandoned mine reclamation and advocates for critical legislative investments and action on water infrastructure and other water quality issues.

Among the recommendations included in the Guide are--

1. Protect Pennsylvania's Dedicated Fund For Watershed Restoration

-- Protect and expand the existing $50 million annual allocation for the Clean Streams Fund.

-- Ensure that all funding allocated to the Clean Streams Funds via the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) is equitably spent before the December 31, 2026 deadline.

-- Prioritize investments for municipalities in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed so that they may help the state comply with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) requirements.

-- Support legislation that offers greater protection for riparian buffers and natural infrastructure. Natural infrastructure investments will help reduce more pollution per dollar invested over the course of the project’s life cycle.

-- Explore every method of revenue generation to maximize funding for restoration projects.

2. Provide Adequate Funding For State Resource Agencies

--Provide the state resource agencies with adequate funding to protect and restore Pennsylvania’s 86,000 miles of streams-- DEP, DCNR, Agriculture (State Conservation Commission).  

-- Appropriation levels should meet the agencies’ programmatic, staffing, and compliance needs, fulfill their missions, and uphold Pennsylvanians’ constitutional right to pure water.

3. Restore Fair Share Funding To River Basin Commissions

-- Restore and maintain full funding to all six interstate commissions as defined in each compact that serves Pennsylvania’s watersheds-- Delaware and Susquehanna River Basin Commissions, Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission, Interstate Commission for the Potomac River Basin, Great Lakes Commission and Chesapeake Bay Commission.

4. Support PA Game and Fish & Boat Commissions

5. Address priority water quality issues--

-- Invest In Agricultural Conservation Assistance Program

     -- Continue and/or increase dedicated funding for Agricultural Conservation Assistance Program (ACAP) that targets funding for local farms to invest in conservation practices.

     -- Increase funding for Resource Enhancement and Protection tax credits to complement ACAP.

-- Cleanup Abandoned Mine Lands

     -- Support the recommendations contained in the Assessment of Opportunities for GridScale Solar Development on Previously Impacted Mine Lands in Pennsylvania Report 

     -- Ensure federal funding is accessed and implemented in a timely manner toward the monitoring, development planning, design, construction, future operation and maintenance of abandoned mine drainage (AMD) treatment systems

     -- Support the advancement of mine pool geothermal development as alternative energy and economic development opportunities on abandoned mine lands, previously mined lands, and at AMD discharges.

-- Advance Environmental Justice

     -- Evaluate cumulative environmental and public health impacts as a factor for siting, rule-making, and permitting decisions. Create opportunities for meaningful public participation and influence in these processes which includes public notice, outreach and engagement, and public hearings.

-- Prioritize Green Stormwater Infrastructure

-- Combat Combined Sewer Overflows

-- Address Lead In School Drinking Water

-- Prioritize Equity In Public Water Systems

-- Address PFAS 'Forever Chemicals' In Water

-- Minimize Impacts Of A.I. Data Centers

     -- Require Environmental Impact Studies for data centers, especially those that connect directly to their own power plants and proposed on previously impacted surface, abandoned, and underground mine lands.

        Studies should consider cumulative impacts of both the data center and the power plant’s water needs and publicly disclose their findings regarding water and energy consumption.

     -- Require developers to prove that the water withdrawals will not adversely impact surface, groundwater, or the stability of underground mine pools and potential for mine subsidence.

     -- Update regulations for power generation facilities to curtail negative impacts of resource demand, ensuring strict pollution limits to protect air and water quality.

-- Protect Pennsylvanians From Use Of Paraquat Herbicide

Click Here to read the Legislator's Guide.

The Choose Clean Water Coalition brings together more than 320 groups around the Chesapeake Bay Watershed to protect and restore our rivers and streams.

[Posted: May 26, 2026]  PA Environment Digest