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BISBEE — The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is sponsoring a public open house Tuesday in Sierra Vista to discuss planned construction of tactical infrastructure, including vehicle fence, pedestrian fence, access roads and patrol roads, in the Tucson Sector along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Customs and Border Protection is committed to building in an environmentally responsible manner, according to an announcement of the upcoming event. The agency will prepare a plan to ensure that adverse environmental impacts are minimized during the construction.
“Through our consultation and environmental stewardship efforts, CBP seeks to identify, avoid, minimize and mitigate impacts on air quality, noise, land use, recreation, visual resources, geology and soils, water use and quality, cultural resources, socioeconomic resources and environmental justice, utilities and infrastructure, and biological resources including vegetation, wildlife, aquatic species and special status species,” states the announcement.
Sean Sullivan, spokesman for the Arizona Sierra Club, a grass-roots environmental organization, said the government’s upcoming open house “is just a public relations stunt.”
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“The real reason for doing this is so back in Washington, D.C., they can fill out a report that says they held these public meetings and even though they mean nothing and they don’t get the word out to a lot of people, they can still mark it off their check box to say they are being open to the public when in fact they are not. It is just a dog and pony show,” he said.
“This move by DHS to put on a front that they care about the public is an empty gesture. If they really wanted to get public input and take care of environmental concerns, they would have followed the federal laws that they waived,” he added.
Last year, Sierra Club and Defenders of Wildlife filed a lawsuit to halt construction of the border fence in the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area until an assessment could be made on the impact on wildlife. A federal judge granted the restraining order.
But Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff invoked his power under the REAL ID Act to waive certain laws to allow for fence construction to continue. The two conservation organizations are challenging Section 102 of Real ID, which gives Chertoff the ability to waive local, state and federal laws. They lost the case in federal court, but now they are petitioning the Supreme Court to hear it.
The open house will take place Tuesday from 4:30 to 8 p.m. at the Windmere Hotel and Conference Center at 2047 S. State Highway 92 in Sierra Vista.
It is not clear if similar events are being held in other parts of the country. Efforts to contact Loren Flossman, program manager of SBI tactical infrastructure, were unsuccessful.
JONATHON SHACAT can be reached at 515-4693 or by e-mail at jonathon.shacat@bisbeereview.net.
KCC wrote on May 11, 2008 8:08 AM: