The grassroots group No Skook Detention has decided to fight dirty in its efforts to rally Tremont Township residents against a proposed 7,500-bed detention center planned for Schuylkill County.<\/p>\n
Specifically, it wants you to see exactly how hard it might be to meet the sewage needs of such a facility. The estimated 1 million gallons of sewage such a facility would need calculates to 150 \u201cpoop trucks\u201d a day, the group estimates, and it\u2019s launched a video game<\/a> in which you can attempt to drive those poop trucks past deer and state Department of Environmental Protection inspectors.<\/p>\n The game can be played on a mobile phone or a laptop. It looks like what you\u2019d get if you crossed classic computer games Frogger and the Oregon Trail \u2014 with stark visual reminders of what happens if a poop truck runs off road and spills.<\/p>\n Ever since the federal government bought two area warehouses \u2014 a 527,000-square-foot warehouse in Upper Bern Township sold for $87.4 million and a 1.3 million-square-foot former warehouse in Tremont Township sold for $119 million \u2014 Lehigh Valley residents and politicians have closely monitored Berks and Schuylkill counties to see how local and state officials respond<\/a> to plans to turn the sites into U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement facilities.<\/p>\n As part of Gov. Josh Shapiro\u2019s efforts to push back on detention center construction, DEP ordered the federal government to comply with environmental regulations before opening the proposed centers<\/a>.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, concerns from Schuylkill<\/a> and Berks residents<\/a> regarding the proposed detention centers have resulted in packed town halls.<\/p>\n As the Department of Homeland Security advanced plans to\u00a0buy warehouses and convert them to large-scale detention centers, local and federal officials have at times disagreed on how such facilities would affect water and sewage infrastructure, as well as local tax revenue<\/a>.<\/p>\n