SURPRISE, AZ — The Department of Homeland Security says the site of a potential ICE facility in Surprise would not significantly harm the environment, as long as it meets the city’s water requirements.
DHS released two early reports Monday on the environmental effects of the proposed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement site at 13290 W. Sweetwater Avenue. The documents are a draft environmental assessment and a draft finding of no significant impact, and not the final findings report.
Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes filed a lawsuit challenging the facility in April. It claimed DHS and ICE failed to conduct or make required environmental reviews before development.
ICE says it plans to turn the existing warehouse into a detention and processing center that would hold up to 1,500 detainees, according to the draft assessment. About 676 staff would work three shifts around the clock.
The draft finding says that with water measures in place, the project “would not significantly affect the quality of the human environment.” The documents also say construction and operations would bring jobs and spending to the area.
The draft assessment also says the facility could increase calls for police, fire, and emergency medical services. It rates those effects as “minor to moderate.”
The site is in Surprise City Councilman Chris Judd’s District 6.
“They said there’s potential impact on our public safety services, but they’re unsure how much,” Judd said. “Surprise is going to comment on that because our fire chief and our police chief believe the impact’s gonna be greater than what they’ve been stating it’s gonna be.”
The drafts say the facility would need a new city well to meet its water demand, projected at about 190,000 gallons a day on average, and "an anticipated peak demand of approximately 215,000."
To serve the facility, Surprise would have to build a well about five years earlier than planned, and change a planned arsenic-treatment expansion, according to the draft assessment. The facility would pay for the work, and the city would build it.
Brent Peak is the co-chair of Northwest Valley Indivisible, a group opposing the facility. He said the reports still don’t address what he sees as the biggest problem with the site: the potential effects from a chemical warehouse across the street, named as Rinchem Company, LLC in documentation.
The draft says the detention center would likely have detainees shelter in place during an off-site chemical release, because the building has a closed-loop HVAC system.
“Rinchem has filed a risk management plan with the EPA that one of our volunteers was able to look at and research. That risk management plan is never cited in this review,” Peak said.
Peak added that DHS is putting off a shelter-in-place plan without first knowing for certain whether sheltering in place would work there.
“If they think that they can kick the can down the road about putting together an adequate shelter-in-place system without even determining whether or not there is a possible way to adequately shelter in place under those circumstances, they are not doing their due diligence here,” he said.
Judd said the decision to ultimately develop the site into a detention facility is not the city’s to make, even with 30 days for public comment. Under the city’s rules for high water users, he said, the city has to provide service if the facility pays for the work and covers replacement water.
“We’ve been saying the same thing from day one: the only way this stops is because the feds decide to stop,” Judd said.
A 30-day public comment period started Monday. DHS says it will consider those comments before making a final decision.
The Arizona Attorney General’s Office told ABC15 it does not have a comment yet.
