15 Comments
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yeti spaghetti's avatar

Fantastic article and great journalism.

Stacy Surla's avatar

Excellent research and reporting. Thank you.

jennifer b's avatar

I just learned about Project Saltbox on the Rachael Maddow show (2/9/2026). Thank you so much Michael Wriston -co founder - for your reporting and for making this information available to the public. This is yet another Trump administration outrage.

Philip Curran's avatar

I will be there.

Kibykat's avatar

This reeks of shell corporations money laundering. Drumpf's cronies from numerous other incidents from even before this regime have been found on laundering charges and obstruction of justice. Look at how Lev Parnas took the fall for him. There's also infighting currently with miller being the architect of much of this misery with drumpf being controlled by his narcissism.

Amy's avatar

If Washington County says the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution means they can't stop the federal government from buying that building, fine. But I have some ideas for things that could delay or ruin their ability to legally use it to house people.

Michael Wriston's avatar

Hey Amy! Can you email me at projectsaltbox@proton.me? I’d love to set up some time to chat with you.

Puzzled's avatar

I suggest any outreach to folks who want to help be done through signal. It’s one of the few remaining encrypted chat apps that is trustworthy. Not a silver bullet for privacy but far better than email, text, or posting on forums.

Amy's avatar

That building is awfully close to Semple Run, a tributary of Conococheague Creek. If they want to "house" a ton of people there, they should have to prove their facility has proper wastewater management infrastructure.

Check out "Total Maximum Daily Loads of Fecal Bacteria for the Conococheague Creek Basin in Washington County, Maryland"

https://mde.maryland.gov/programs/water/tmdl/doclib_conococheague_02140504/conococheague_bacteria_tmdl_121114_final_revised.pdf

Sonia Shah's avatar

this is an illuminating report! are there more recent ones available?

Amy's avatar

There is literally a wastewater pumping station across the road from that facility. Is that building hooked up to the sewer system? Is that sewer system capable of handling all the waste that the facility would be producing if they were "at capacity"?

Amy's avatar

That site is less than 1000 feet from a preschool, there could be a law prohibiting the operation of a "detention center" too close to that kind of facility. There could be an argument about (potential) sex offenders being too close to a school.

Amy's avatar

If they are going to be using all that power to run the building, maybe they should have to install solar voltaic panels all over the roof before it can open. Otherwise it might overburden the local electrical grid.

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Jan 30
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Amy's avatar

That site is awfully close to a tributary of the Conococheague Creek, which already has a fecal matter problem. If they house a ton of people there, they need to prove that their facility is not expected to contribute to the existing problem. There's a PDF on “Total Maximum Daily Loads of Fecal Bacteria for the Conococheague Creek Basin in Washington County, Maryland” that could be a starting point.

https://mde.maryland.gov/programs/water/tmdl/doclib_conococheague_02140504/conococheague_bacteria_tmdl_121114_final_revised.pdf