Thread: AZ: Border Fence Could Harm Environment, Expert Says

Border Fence Could Harm Environment, Expert Says

Published August 22, 2011

| EFE

Nogales – The federal government should take action to prevent environmental damage from floods related to the new barrier on the Arizona-Mexico border, an expert said.

"We believe we're beginning to see evidence of the consequences of ignoring environmental laws in building the fence along the border," Jenny Neeley, director of conservation policy at the Tucson-based Sky Island Alliance, told Efe.

Early this month, a 40-foot stretch of the barrier collapsed because of the heavy rains.

The part that came down was a segment of a 5.2 mile fence built between 2007 and 2009 within the confines of the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument.

"This part of the border fence was built after Congress gave special powers to the Department of Homeland Security in 2006 to ignore environmental protection laws," Neeley said.

Parts of the fence were built without respecting the standards established under federal laws protecting the environment, and even ignoring the specific warnings of the National Park Service.

Lee Baiza, superintendent of Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, told media that the border fence acted like a dam behind which water collected, and the higher the water rose, the stronger it got, until it knocked the fence down.

"The DHS not only doesn't help protect the border, it also causes significant damage to the ecosystem, creating a problem that could easily have been avoided if they had followed the established rules," Neeley said.

She said that this is not the first time such problems have arisen with the border fence - back in 2009 the management of Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument reported that the Lukeville Port of Entry and other parts of the park were being flooded due to drainage problems caused by the fence.

"Construction like this causes massive erosion by blocking the natural flow of rainwater, so the water is forced into other areas, causing great damage to the region," Neeley said.

The federal government tried to ease the problem by installing sluicegates to drain off the water, but for that strategy to work, according to Neeley, federal agents would have to know exactly when it is going to rain and where the water will be concentrated.

"Anybody who has lived more than one rainy season in Arizona knows perfectly well that you just can't tell where it's going to rain," the expert said.

http://latino.foxnews.com

"Anybody who has lived more than one rainy season in Arizona knows perfectly well that you just can't tell where it's going to rain," the expert said.

YA THINK??? What a asinine fence post hole that one is!
Hell we have the Central Arizona Project Canal that runs from the Colorado river East across our whole freaking state! Dumb ass experts!
Tired of them. All of them!

Jenny Neeley, Conservation Policy Director

Jenny joined SIA in August 2010, after receiving her law degree at The University of Arizona. She began her career in conservation in 1997 as a volunteer with the Arizona League of Conservation Voters, and later served as assistant director for the Coalition for Sonoran Desert

Protection. 2001, Jenny began working in for Defenders of Wildlife as their southwest representative, where she remained until starting law school in the fall of 2007. Much of Jenny's work has focused on environmental issues in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands, specifically the buildup of security activities and infrastructure along the Arizona-Mexico border, and the ecological impacts of current U.S. border policy. While with Defenders,

Jenny co-authored On the Line: Impacts of Immigration Policy on Wildlife and Habitat in the Arizona Borderlands, published in January 2006. Her law note also focused on U.S. border policy, specifically examining the constitutionality and policy implications of Sec. 102 of the REAL ID Act, which allows the Secretary of Homeland Security to waive all laws when building infrastructure along the U.S. international border. In addition to her law degree, Jenny holds a masters degree in natural resource policy and an undergraduate degree in photojournalism. She was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, and grew up in Honolulu, Hawai'i. In her free time, she enjoys hiking, gardening, yoga, and photography.

http://www.skyislandalliance.org/staff_board.htm


Looks like a real expert to me...........not!

Of course illegals don't harm the environment at all.