Washington County ICE Warehouse Water/Sewer Capacity Woefully Inadequate; $2M Tax Revenue Loss for County

A review of wastewater allocation plans for the ICE warehouse located at 16220 Wright Road in Williamsport, Maryland, reveals a significant disparity between its current design capacity and the potential demand if the facility were repurposed as a processing facility for up to 1,500 detainees. According to information originating from the original site plan and Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) design guidelines, the warehouse, as originally planned, was intended to support 207 employees, with a proposed water/sewer allocation of 1,800 gallons per day (GPD). To further complicate matters, the warehouse was in the top 20 tax payers of Washington County, and its transfer to Federal hands means a total loss of approximately $2,002,911.15 in tax revenue in the first year of the sale (compared to if it had been sold to a private owner), in addition to the loss of over $700,000 property tax revenue per year after.

UPDATED 2/18/2026 9:25 AM to include a quote from City Administration Scott Nicewarner regarding water allocation, and a link to the most recent City Council meeting.

UPDATED 2/13/2026 8:06 PM to include additional information regarding potential water usage.

The planned staffing for the warehouse facility included 42 office employees and 165 warehouse employees, totaling 207 individuals. This employee count informed the initial water/sewer allocation. However, when compared to MDE guidelines, this proposed allocation appears to be substantially lower than standard projections. For instance, MDE guidelines suggest a flow of 15 gallons per person per shift for offices and factories, which for 207 employees would amount to 3,105 GPD. Furthermore, MDE’s “Guiding Factors” based on square footage, which are typically used when employee numbers are unknown, project significantly higher usage. For the office space, an estimate of 4,320 GPD is derived from 48,000 square feet, and for the warehouse space, a figure of 23,310 GPD is calculated from 777,000 square feet. The total projected usage based on square footage would be 27,630 GPD. The discrepancy suggests that the developer likely secured a waiver or variance to utilize actual expected employee counts rather than the default broader square footage calculations for the facility’s water/sewer allocation.

The implications for water/sewer usage would be dramatically altered if the warehouse were to be converted into a processing facility for 1,500 detainees. While specific MDE guidelines for detention centers were not detailed in available information from MDE, the 2013 guidelines establish baseline figures for similar high-density institutional settings such as boarding schools. For such populations, MDE projects future flows at approximately 100 gallons per day per person. Therefore, a facility housing 1,500 detainees could use an estimated 150,000 GPD. This figure does not include the water/sewer use by staff. If the current original proposed level of 207 employees were maintained, an additional 3,105 GPD would be added at 15 GPD, bringing the total estimated usage to approximately 153,105 GPD.

EDITOR’S NOTE: We were informed by an expert in the industry that modern plumbing it’s more likely that only 60 gallons per person would be needed. This brings the total to 93,105 GPD, which is still a significant increase over the original proposed capacity of 1,800 GPD. While our calculations were based on Maryland Department of the Environment documentation, we are including this information for completeness.

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This represents an enormous increase from the original warehouse design. The average daily flow would escalate from 1,800 GPD to approximately 153,105 GPD, signifying an increase of over 8,000% the initial allocation. Moreover, the originally proposed water/sewer allocation of 1,800 GPD would be demonstrably insufficient to handle the demands of a processing facility of this scale.

This could have potential impacts on local infrastructure and resource management due to such a drastic change in usage, including required upgrades to water and sewer line capacity, and possibly even upgrades to the respective water and wastewater treatment plants to handle this significant capacity increase. It is unknown how Department of Homeland Security plans to address this, or if the City of Hagerstown or Washington County are currently in negotiation to provide the required water & sewer allocation.

While the County has embraced a policy of requiring any media requests to go through the Public Information Act process, the City of Hagerstown did respond to our inquiries. “There has been no contact regarding utilities,” said Scott Nicewarner, City Administrator. Additionally, some council members have speculated that DHS may drill their own wells at the site instead of pursuing additional allocation from the City of Hagerstown.

Undoubtedly, this would likely require significant capital improvement expenditures in the millions of dollars, on top of the fact that Washington County’s property tax revenue has now decreased by $700,000 per year as the Federal property is tax exempt.

When putting together the FY2024 budget, Frind Hopewell LLC, the former owner of the warehouse, was listed in the top 20 taxpayers in Washington County. The property had an assessed value greater than Mack Trucks, Walmart, Fedex, or Intelsat properties. The loss of the annual property tax revenue, currently $712,921.15, has significant impacts on the County budget. While this represents a 0.43% decrease in property tax revenue for the county, it’s important to note that property tax is not the only lost revenue from the sale, which typically would also include transfer and recording taxes. Washington County Recordation Tax is $3.80 per $500 of consideration, and Washington County Transfer Tax is 0.5% of the consideration amount about $50,000. This means in total, Washington County lost out on $1,289,990.00 in recording and transfer taxes because the warehouse was sold to the Federal Government instead of a private party. The State of Maryland also lost out on a bit over half a million dollars in the transfer.

This means that in the first year, Washington County loses out on $2,002,911.15 in revenue due to the sale, and over $700,000 per year going forward. The State of Maryland also loses out on approximately $86,000 per year in property tax revenue.

Any time we have inquired about these topics with Washington County Government, we have been directed to utilize the MPIA process, which typically takes 30 days, or more, and would result in unnecessary delay in our coverage of this matter. Therefore, since this information is in accordance with already available public records, we believe these figures are correct, but invite the county to release corrected figures if our calculations are not accurate.

Article by Ken Buckler, based upon information from the Maryland Department of the Environment, original site plan data, and county tax records.

Original documents used in this article are available in our document repository.

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