Thread: TX-Feds acknowledge fence will hamper border life

Feds acknowledge fence will hamper border life
By CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN Associated Press Writer
Article Launched: 07/15/2008 04:41:23 PM MDT


McALLEN, Texas—The U.S.-Mexico border fence will make life harder on some South Texas farmers, damage valuable wildlife habitat, impair views and generally become an obstacle to border life, the Department of Homeland Security acknowledged in an environmental study of the fence's impact.
For the people of the Rio Grande Valley, the federal government said in the recent study that there are serious tradeoffs for 70 miles of fence segments that will help Border Patrol control illegal immigration and smuggling from Mexico. But it added that residents will benefit from increased security against "illegal cross-border activity."

Construction could begin in the Valley next week.

"If you live within a mile or so of the river, which is where the fence will be built, you are eternally sentenced to an unsafe existence," Eagle Pass Mayor Chad Foster, head of the anti-fence Texas Border Coalition, said in a prepared statement.

However, some South Texas denizens will get a break—the fence will include hundreds of holes so the endangered ocelot and jaguarundi can get to the Rio Grande to drink. And if an animal falls in the hole during fence construction? DHS will provide escape ramps, the plan said.

The department's Environmental Stewardship Plan for the Rio Grande Valley was controversial before it was ever released. DHS drew up the plan after Secretary Michael Chertoff waived environmental studies required by federal law to speed construction

of the fence.
Federal officials said the plans show Chertoff is keeping his promise to be a good steward of the land in the fence's path.

"The Secretary made it clear when he invoked the waiver authority that that by no means meant we would act without some responsible plan," Customs and Border Protection spokesman Barry Morrissey said. "The environmental work is still being done."

New maps of the 21 fence segments running through the lower Rio Grande Valley showed very little variation from preliminary maps released last fall. In Brownsville, the fence will run along the Rio Grande on part of the University of Texas at Brownsville's campus, but the school's golf course and undeveloped acreage that the fast-growing school planned to use for expansion will still be behind the fence.

About 14 miles of fence between Roma and Los Ebanos will be built in the floodplain as a "removable" fence. Treaties with Mexico strictly regulate the building of permanent obstacles in the floodplain that could steer floodwaters toward one side or the other.

Morrissey described those segments as similar to concrete jersey barriers commonly seen in highway construction projects, topped with about 15 feet of steel mesh fencing.

"It's very solid, but it's portable," Morrissey said.

The new plan does not clarify the issue of access gates in the fence—one of the most frustrating for landowners along the border who wonder how the gates will be operated, if they will be manned and how access could be restricted.

The question is critical for homeowners whose homes and businesses will be left in the no man's land between the fence and the river.

Without offering details, the plan recognized that the fence will be an obstacle to farmers in terms of access to the land for themselves and their machinery and livestock, and will increase their costs and possibly decrease the land's value.

Government contractors will clear about 508 acres of land in the lower Valley. Despite the access holes for the endangered cats, the plan acknowledges that the fence "will likely impact wildlife movement, access to traditional water sources, and potential for gene flow" because some of the species cross the border into Mexico to mate.

Seven segments in Hidalgo County where DHS will build a 15 to 18-foot concrete wall into the river side of levees will not include the wildlife holes. The longest of those segments will be just over four miles, so animals trying to reach the river could move between them, the plan said.

Seventeen of the 21 fence sections in the Valley will affect wildlife management areas or national wildlife refuges, 14 of them directly.

The private Audubon Society's Sabal Palm Center near Brownsville will still be completely south of the fence, according to the plan. And a neighboring nature reserve managed by The Nature Conservancy will be bisected by the fence.

Since fence construction will overlap with the migratory bird nesting season, wildlife experts will mark nests in construction's path and attempt to move them. Still, the noise from construction could overwhelm birdsongs, making it diffcult for some to find mates, according to the plan.

The government will also try to avoid cutting down or to transplant mature trees but concedes that it won't always be possible.

"Removal will result in long-term major adverse impacts, because these large mature trees are virtually irreplaceable," the plan said.

Archaeologists will watch construction closely in case unknown sites are uncovered.

Environmental advocates remained suspicious.

"There was a formal process in place for how to go through the (environmental impact statement) process and it's something we believe in firmly," said Oliver Bernstein, spokesman for the Sierra Club in Texas. "Any attempt to come up with your own fixes we're going to be very wary of that

http://origin.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_9889923

Still, the noise from construction could overwhelm birdsongs, making it diffcult for some to find mates, according to the plan.

I'm at a loss for words! We're talking national security here and these looney tunes are worried about birds finding mates. I'm sick to the pit of my stomach over so-called enviromentalist acting as if they own everything and ruining people's lives over some type of presumed danger to a "never heard of" animal.

The wackos prevented flood gates from being installed at New Orleans because of the disruption of some kind of fish's mating habits. They could care less about use mere humans while they go about their worship of the earth and create as much havoc as possible.

The idiots put the Polar Bear on the Endangered "Watch" list even though they have doubled in population. It was done because of WHAT might occur in the future with global warming and also so the Sierra Club and others can file lawsuits against just about everything that is built and it's "carbon footprint."

The U.S.-Mexico border fence will make life harder on some South Texas farmers, damage valuable wildlife habitat, impair views and generally become an obstacle to border life, the Department of Homeland Security acknowledged in an environmental study of the fence's impact.

Uh huh, like millions of criminals traipsing through this valuable habitat, dumping tons of trash and turning it into the worlds biggest outhouse doesn't do any damage?!?! BS!

The fence doesn't dump trash or defacate on the land, unless it's a "magic" fence?

WHAT views??!?! It's a desert for God's sake! Put another floor on your building and put in a rooftop deck, there ya go - a VIEW!

An obstacle to border life? Hate to bring this up, but wtf do you think these criminals EAT on the "valuable habitat"? They eat food watered with human waste, ya think they give a damn if the bird they're eating is an endangered species?!?! ROFLMBO!!!