Upper Bern Township<\/a> in Berks County, residents and local leaders gathered in nearby Shartlesville for a town hall focused on how to stop the project.<\/p>\nThe proposed facility, tied to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, has drawn growing concern from the community. Attendees said the project could strain infrastructure and raise safety concerns across the region.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat is it going to be for our water systems?\u201d said Berks County resident Linda Alspach-Heckman. \u201cWhat is it going to be for our septic system? What is it going to do for the road structures, the infrastructure of our community, with the fire, the police?\u201d<\/p>\n
According to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, the facility could produce up to 225,000 gallons of sewage per day and use up to 180,000 gallons of water daily \u2014 levels some fear could overwhelm local systems.<\/p>\n
Berks County Commissioner Dante Santoni said the proposed 1,500-person processing center could also impact public safety in Berks County and neighboring areas, including Lancaster County.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a large Latino population in Reading and Berks County that are quite frankly scared, and they shouldn’t be,\u201d Santoni said. \u201cThey shouldn’t be scared to go to work; they shouldn’t be scared to go to school. They shouldn’t be scared to go to the supermarket or to church.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection recently sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security outlining orders prohibiting operation of water systems and sewage systems at the site until proper permits are obtained. Federal officials have since requested an extension to respond with their plans.<\/p>\n
Concerns over the project have crossed party lines. Republican Congressman Dan Meuser, who represents the area, said in a statement in February that he shares the concerns over the local infrastructure, while Governor Josh Shapiro has vowed to do everything in his power to stop the project.<\/p>\n
Organizers at the town hall emphasized the importance of community involvement, saying local voices could influence federal decision-making.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe biggest thing is just making sure that we are doing this together, that we\u2019re standing up and that we\u2019re pushing forward because there is an opportunity for us to stop this,\u201d said Charles Corbit, with the Berks Urgent Response Network.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A town hall brought residents and officials together to discuss how to oppose the project. SHARTLESVILLE, Pa. \u2014…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":145677,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[128,130,129],"class_list":["post-145676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145676"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145676\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/145677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}