MONROE COUNTY, Pa. – “Not through my backyard,” a Pennsylvania lawmakers’ message to PennDOT over a billion-dollar highway expansion project.

State Rep. Tarah Probst says if the massive I-80 project isn’t scaled down, she will tie it up in court.

Close to her Stroudsburg office is the Pocono Creek, we saw and heard a Bald Eagle cry.

A legislative call to arms for the Monroe County State Rep.

“If I have to go to Congress, I will,” Probst said.

In October, amateur archaeologist Danny Younger showed us his discovery of long-lost Fort Hamilton, commissioned by Benjamin Franklin during the French and Indian War, as well as a massive Eagles nest.

Both border Pocono Creek and are in the path of PennDOT’s one billion dollar I-80 expansion.

“I’m not a state rep on this, I’m a constituent, I’m a person that lives and is going to be affected by this,” Probst said.

At the center of the fight is the issuance of a “Finding Of No Significant Impact” document, which allows issuances of permits on this project.

Probst says it’s a lie and a dereliction of duty, given the recent discovery of 7,000-year-old Native American artifacts, wetlands, Revolutionary War fort and the Bald Eagle nests, which appears to sit within the 660-foot federally required buffer zone around active bald eagle nests in construction zones.

Probst’s concern extends to the potential closing of a highway exit, separating it from Main Street that will increase emergency response times.

Probst has 2500 signatures wanting the project scaled back and says PennDOT doesn’t care.

“More powerful than our Governor, and they do whatever they want, whenever they want, to whomever they want, however they want, and they don’t care,” she said of PennDOT.

In response, PennDOT said “The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) is in compliance with all federal and state laws, rules, and regulations for the I-80 Reconstruction Project. PennDOT will continue to maintain compliance with all federal and state laws, rules, and regulations during all stages of the I-80 Reconstruction Project.”

A project permit has yet to be issued in Stroudsburg. If it is, Probst says she’ll self-fund a lawsuit.

“I’m here to do a job that I was elected to do, and the last thing I’m going to do is roll over to PennDOT,” she said.