Stand Strong for PA’s Communities Against ICE Detention Centers in Tremont and Upper Bern Townships

Governor Josh Shapiro
501 North 3rd Street
508 Main Capitol Building
Harrisburg, PA 17120

Joseph J. Buczynski
P.E. Regional Director, Northeast Regional Office
Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection
2 Public Square
Wilkes-Barre, PA 18701

Robert M. DiGilarmo, II
Regional Director, Southcentral Regional Office
Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection
909 Elmerton Ave
Harrisburg, PA 17110

Dear Governor Shapiro, Regional Director Buczynski and Regional Director DiGilarmo,

On March 5, 2026, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection issued Administrative Orders to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security regarding the federal agency’s intention to use warehouse facilities as immigration detention facilities, located at 51 Rausch Creek Road in Tremont Township, Schuylkill County, PA and 3501 Mountain Road in Upper Bern Township, Berks County, PA.  

The PADEP Administrative Orders clearly identified legal obligations, limitations and prohibitions regarding drinking water and sewage treatment as related to the proposed ICE detention facilities.

In a letter dated February 12, Governor Shapiro stated firm opposition to transforming these two warehouses into ICE detention facilities and told the Department of Homeland Security, “If you press ahead, my Administration will aggressively pursue every option to prevent these facilities from opening and needlessly harming the good people of Pennsylvania.”

March 17, 2026, ICE wrote PADEP urging it to relax, modify, circumvent, extend, suspend or otherwise alter or weaken the provided mandates in the Administrative Orders and in Pennsylvania State Law as they pertain to the Upper Bern Township and the Tremont Township detention facility proposals.

On March 24, 206, PADEP responded to ICE, identifying the many reasons why the March 17 requests from ICE were inappropriate and otherwise not in compliance with law, and why PADEP would not be granting their requests.

In addition to legislative and regulatory protections the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has in place for our environment, the Pennsylvania State constitution recognizes and protects the inalienable human right of all Pennsylvanians, including both present and future generations, to “clean air, pure water, and to the preservation of the natural, scenic, historic and esthetic values of the environment.” This Pennsylvania Green Amendment also recognizes that the natural resources of our Commonwealth are “the common property of all the people, including generations yet to come.” And instructs that as the trustee of these resources, Pennsylvania government – at both the state and local level – shall conserve and maintain them for the benefit of all the people.

With all this in mind, we the undersigned from the impacted communities, watersheds and region, and from communities across the Commonwealth who have an interest in protection of our state’s moral values, environment, the health and safety of our communities, and the economic vitality of our state,

• Urge you to continue to stand strong in protecting our communities and environments from the irreparable harm these ICE detention centers pose;
•  Urge you to fully embrace and implement your duty to protect our constitutional rights to pure water, clean air, and a healthy environment; and to conserve and maintain our state’s natural resources ensuring their protection for present and future generations;
• Implore you to stand strong in defense of moral values that call for full and fair protection of all people, including those being detained by ICE; and
• Call on you to continue forth with an unwavering commitment to upholding every provision of law that applies to these ICE detention facilities, including all the obligations, requirements and mandates laid out in the March 5, 2026 Administrative Orders issued to ICE, the Townships and the Schuylkill County Municipal Authority.

What ICE is Planning & How It Will Impact Communities & Our Environment

ICE plans to incarcerate 7,500 people at the Tremont warehouse location and 1,500 people at the Upper Bern warehouse location, with additional individuals working at each location. While ICE has not put in applications for water or sewage services, or provided detailed information to PADEP, the towns, counties, or state officials so they can undertake essential reviews and decisionmaking, ICE has stated that it intends to have their proposed detention facilities and processing centers up and running by November of this year. 

The proposed drinking water and sewage needs of each of the ICE detention centers, with their high intended occupancy rates, would place tremendous stress on water and sewer infrastructure in Tremont and Upper Bern and could overwhelm the systems as currently designed and/or operating.

For example, as discussed in the Administrative Orders:

• The up to 900,000 gallons per day of water needed to support 7,500 detainees at the Tremont facility exceeds the 400,000 gallon per day capacity of the Schuylkill County Municipal Authority (SCMA) Tremont Public Water System and amounts to 90% of the system’s 1,000,000 gallon storage tank that is needed to support the town’s drinking water and fire protection needs.^[1]

• The 450,000 to 1,000,000 gallons per day of sewage that would be produced by 7,500 incarcerated individuals “will overwhelm SCMA’s existing collection system and pump station, and hydraulically overload the Tremont Wastewater Treatment Plant.”^[2] SCMA is only authorized to treat 500,000 gallons per day of wastewater at the Tremont Wastewater Treatment Plant.

• According to PADEP, “[s]ending 450,000 to 1,000,000 gallons per day of sewage from the [warehouse site] to the Tremont Wastewater Treatment Plant will result in the uncontrolled discharge of untreated or inadequately treated sewage to Swatara Creek from the Tremont Wastewater Treatment Plant”—in violation of both state and federal law.^[3]

• The current water system serving the Upper Bern facility can provide a maximum of 12,240 gallons per day and does not currently conform to approved construction plans. In order to support 1,500 people detained at the facility, 180,000 gallons per day of water would be required.^[4]

• In Upper Bern, the current applicable Sewage Approval Plan is based on a maximum 8,000 gallons of sewage per day from the warehouse facility; and the Township Wastewater Treatment Plant has a maximum hydraulic capacity of 206,000 gallons per day of sewage. If operated as proposed, the ICE facility would produce up to 225,000 gallons per day of sewage, far exceeding the current approved Plan and the maximum hydraulic capacity of the Town’s wastewater treatment plant.^[5]

The Impacts of What ICE is Proposing are Foreseeable, Unacceptable, and Potentially Devastating

If ICE were allowed to operate either or both the Tremont and the Upper Bern detention centers as proposed and under existing conditions, our communities, our environment, and incarcerated people lacking access to solutions, could suffer from a number of very foreseeable and catastrophic outcomes, including:

• Thousands of detainees denied/deprived of needed drinking water, and/or water for their personal care needs such as toilets and showers;
• A fire event at a detention center where the volume of water needed to address the fire, and to protect both detainees and employees, is not available;
• A detention center that pulls so much water from the public water system that residents of the town are denied drinking water, personal care wash water, toilet water, and/or water needed to protect the community from fire, especially under more frequent drought conditions;
• Sewage that overwhelms Tremont’s wastewater treatment facilities resulting in serious pollution being discharged in to the Swatara Creek;
• Sewage that overwhelms Upper Bern’s wastewater treatment facilities resulting in serious pollution being discharged into Wolf Creek.

What Must the Governor and the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection Do?

We are supportive of the firm mandates PADEP provided in the March 5, 2026 Administrative Orders that were reaffirmed in its March 24, 2026 follow up letters to ICE:

• Prohibiting the ICE facilities from connecting to the existing public water systems serving Upper Bern and Tremont without the necessary permits and approvals;
• Prohibiting ICE from hauling water in to the facilities without the necessary permits and approvals;
• Prohibiting ICE from constructing new water system facilities without required reviews, approvals and permits;
• Prohibiting the ICE facilities from connecting to the Tremont and Upper Bern wastewater facilities without updated, and approved, Sewage Plans, permits and approvals;
• Prohibiting the use of onsite sewage equipment such as tanks, privies or chemical toilets without updated Sewage Plans, reviews and approvals;
• Requiring ICE to provide a written description of plans to manage sewage from the proposed sites; and
• Ensuring that neither the Townships nor the Schuylkill County Municipal Authority allow for any actions or activities at the two sites that are prohibited by the Administrative Order or would allow activities at the sites without proper planning, reviews, approvals and/or permits.

We are concerned about ICE’s responses to the Administrative Orders, and their requests that the State relax, modify, circumvent, extend, suspend or otherwise alter or weaken the provided mandates in the Administrative Orders and in Pennsylvania State Law.

The ICE detention center operations will clearly inflict overwhelming stress and harm on our communities and our environment. They threaten our drinking water supplies, stress our sewage facilities, hinder the ability of our communities to properly respond to the threat and harm of fires, and will overwhelm our creeks and environment with pollution and irreversible damage.

Pennsylvanians have a constitutional RIGHT to pure water, clean air, and to the natural, scenic and esthetic values of our environment; and to have OUR natural resources conserved, maintained and protected at the highest constitutional level so they provide an environment of quality for both present and future generations.  And you, as government officials, have a duty to protect our environmental rights.

We write this letter to urge you to continue to stand firm in denying any and all efforts by ICE to soften, weaken or circumvent the strong protective stance you have taken with regards to the safety of our communities, the health of our environment, and the quality drinking water and streams we depend upon for our livelihoods.

Respectfully,

---

^[1] Pa. Dep’t of Envtl. Prot., Admin. Order “In the Matter Of: Schuylkill County Municipal Authority…51 Rausch Creek Road, Tremont Township, Schuylkill County” at 2 and 4 (March 5, 2026).
^[2] Id. at 9-10.
^[3] Id. at 10.
^[4] Pa. Dep’t of Envtl. Prot., Admin. Order “In the Matter Of: Department of Homeland Security U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement…3501 Mountain Road, Upper Bern Township, Berks County” at 4 and 6 (March 5, 2026).
^[5] Id. at 6-7.