A proposed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility in Romulus would be built within historical floodplains, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security acknowledged in a notice on its website. Yet the department still plans to proceed with the ICE facility at 7525 Cogswell St. in the city — and its deadline for the public to comment on potential floodplain impacts ends Friday, Feb. 27.

The Homeland Security notice is required under Executive Order 11988. Signed in May 1977, the order mandates that federal agencies avoid, to the extent possible, the long- and short-term adverse impacts associated with the occupancy and modification of floodplains. It requires agencies to avoid direct or indirect support of floodplain development whenever a practicable alternative exists.

But ICE, in its notice, cited the project’s limited scope and said the absence of stormwater or grading changes and the elevations of finished floors in the building to state the detention center project “would not affect floodplain hydrology or increase flood risk on or off the site,” and declared “ICE has determined that the facility can be safely occupied and operated within the mapped floodplain.”