CovOps
 Location : Ether-Sphere
Job/hobbies : Irrationality Exterminator
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 |  Subject: Idiots: Federal agencies fighting over fence laws  Tue Apr 01, 2008 7:00 pm | |
| McALLEN, Texas — Federal wildlife officials have told Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff he would have to use his waiver authority to get around their objections to a combined levee-border fence design in the Rio Grande Valley.
The Department of Homeland Security announced plans Tuesday to issue two waivers that would bypass 30 laws and regulations so 267 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border fence can be built this year in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. One of the waivers applies specifically to Hidalgo County's levee-fence project.
In a letter obtained by The Associated Press, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service told U.S. Customs and Border Protection — a division of the Homeland Security Department — that its plan to combine Rio Grande flood levees with the border fence in Hidalgo County was a no-go because it would split critical habitat in its Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge.
The new design was created to mollify local officials who had been asking the federal government for years to help pay for levee improvements.
The March 3 letter from Deputy Fish and Wildlife Director Kenneth Stansell to Greg Giddens, executive director of the Secure Border Initiative, said "we were very concerned that after months of consultations on a proposed project design and reaching consensus on a way forward that satisfies the needs of both wildlife and a secure border, (Customs and Border Protection) would unilaterally propose a completely new design and request an immediate response from the (Fish and Wildlife) Service."
The new design, which replaced the original "'wildlife friendly' fence design with an impermeable 16 to 18 foot high wall built into a flood control levee," was not compatible with the refuge's mission, the letter said, concluding that Homeland Security would have to waive the 42-year-old National Wildlife Refuge Administration Act to proceed with the design.
Congress gave Chertoff authority to bypass any laws that stood in the way to building physical security barriers along the border, but the conflict underscores the many levels of opposition and conflict that have accompanied the plans to build hundreds of miles of fence along the U.S.-Mexico border to stanch illegal immigration and drug smuggling.
"Criminal activity at the border does not stop for endless debate or protracted litigation," Chertoff said in a statement issued Tuesday. "Congress and the American public have been adamant that they want and expect border security. We're serious about delivering it, and these waivers will enable important security projects to keep moving forward."
Chertoff has used his waiver authority three times in California and Arizona, but this would be the first in Texas.
The levee-border fence design was initially touted with great fanfare as an example of local and federal cooperation on the project that has spurred dozens of lawsuits and animosity from local and state officials. Chertoff came to Hidalgo County in early February to make the announcement.
But environmentalists quickly complained that the impenetrable concrete levee wall would prevent wildlife from migrating and from reaching the Rio Grande, which in some areas is the only source of fresh water.
The Hidalgo County waiver announced Tuesday targets environmental and land management laws, as well as "other legal and administrative impediments to completing this project by the end of the calendar year," according to Homeland Security.
Hidalgo County Judge J.D. Salinas, the top elected official, called the waiver a positive development toward protecting the county from floods.
"Hidalgo County leaders are committed to listen to the concerns of various environmental groups concerned with the levee barrier plan and submit these concerns to the appropriate federal agencies with decision-making authority," Salinas said in a statement.
But his colleagues along the border issued a statement expressing outrage.
Chad Foster, mayor of Eagle Pass and chairman of the Texas Border Coalition, said "This is the largest waiver of U.S. environmental laws since the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, and we all know how well that worked out. Just ask the people of Valdez, Alaska."
U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison said in a statement that the bypass was the right action "to keep the agreement with Hidalgo County that serves the dual purposes of flood protection and border security."
Customs and Border Patrol asked Fish and Wildlife to quickly develop new options to soften the impact of the levee-border fence in one of the country's most biologically diverse ecosystems.
One alternative Fish and Wildlife suggested if the levee-fence moves ahead was acquiring another 1,300 to 1,700 acres of habitat in the area to preserve critical wildlife corridors. A preliminary cost estimate was $7 million, according to the letter.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/5666115.html |
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