07/19/2008 9:58 CDT

Border wall’ to have lots of doors and even windows
Is the government doing too much, or not enough, to respond to environmental concerns posed by the border fence?
PDF: Fence plan

BROWNSVILLE — The border barrier that soon will be built in the Rio Grande Valley hardly fits the Berlin Wall image conjured by its opponents.

Rather, it’s a patchwork of permeable structures riddled with apertures for animals and people, with lots of gates and lots of keys.

The Homeland Security Department’s Environmental Stewardship Plan for the Valley shows the agency has settled on locations for 21segments totaling about 70 miles, scattered from Brownsville to Roma.

Seven segments will be 18-foot-tall cuts into existing river levees, reinforced with concrete. Three segments will be movable in case of hurricane-induced flooding.

[b]And one segment will be without a foundation, or “floating,â€