Levee-fence design moves forward

A proposal for combining the federal border-fence project with a federal levee-repair project is gaining traction, according to Rio Grande Valley officials. But mixed messages from the federal government suggest that realizing the plan is anything but a certainty.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is expected to move forward on a design that combines the two projects, said Godfrey Garza Jr., flood plain administrator and manager of Hidalgo County’s Drainage District No. 1 in Edinburg. Growing acceptance of the proposal at the federal level means the county could get its long-neglected levees repaired by November next year.

Garza and Hidalgo County Precinct 2 Commissioner Hector “Tito” Palacios received the encouraging news when they visited federal officials in Washington, D.C., last week, they said. It is one of several visits Hidalgo and Cameron county officials have made to the nation’s capital in the past six months to lobby for the design and funding.

“To us, it was a major deal,” Garza said of the federal officials’ initial acceptance of the design. “I think it shows we are moving in the right direction in a very aggressive manner.”

Valley officials adamantly oppose the border fence, citing concerns about the socioeconomic and environmental impact it would have, but have stated if the projects were going to move forward they should move forward together.

The local officials came up with the combined levee-fence concept to convince the federal government to tie the two projects together to maximize federal funding, speed levee repair and simplify construction. Current federal plans call for the fence to closely follow the levee.

However, Garza said, three obstacles stand in the way of final approval and construction of the levee-fence: U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Rio Grande Valley sector must determine if the design provides proper access for agents to patrol the border; a time line must show that construction will be completed by November next year; and a determination must be made as to how funding will be distributed.

Garza said Valley officials “are no longer fighting in D.C.” and now must try to convince the local Border Patrol.

Federal spokesmen could not confirm Tuesday if the fence-levee plan had received preliminary approval.

As part of the design phase for the fence project, DHS officials were in the Valley last week to collect community input on that plan.

The meeting was arranged independently of local officials’ lobbying efforts for the levee-fence alternative; however, area officials are discussing how to incorporate portions of the levees and fence that need to be constructed in Cameron County into a unified timeline.

A call to Cameron County Judge Carlos Cascos was not returned Tuesday afternoon.

Border Patrol’s Rio Grande Valley sector spokesman, Oscar Saldaña, said any inquiries regarding the border fence project must be directed to CBP headquarters in Washington D.C.

DHS officials rely heavily on their “boots on the ground” to tell them what type of fencing is needed and where, said Laura Keehner, a DHS spokeswoman in Washington. She did not know the details of the fence project in South Texas and referred questions to another DHS spokesperson who was unable to confirm any details about the department’s response to the levee-fence proposal.

Valley Border Patrol sector Chief Ron Vitiello said at the end of October that repairing the levees, which resemble a narrow gravel road sloped on both sides, wouldn’t suffice on its own from a security standpoint because they don’t incorporate a fence. But by the middle of November, he had arranged a meeting on the combination levee-fence design after he learned more details, saying the concept was aligned with what Border Patrol was looking at for security purposes.

However, last month CBP released a draft environmental impact statement for the fence stating that a levee topped with a concrete wall “was not considered a viable alternative and will not be carried forward for further detailed analysis.”

To further muddle where the federal government stands on the levee and border fence projects, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said in a Dec. 7 statement that “we want to be open to negotiate. Â… We have been open to alternative solutions.”

He even said the government accepted cutting down vegetation along the Rio Grande to provide an open field of view for Border Patrol agents as an alternative to building a border fence.

Meanwhile, the federal government has let it be known that 70 miles of fencing is planned to be built in the Valley by the end of 2008, and that they may declare portions of the 180-mile levee system insufficient to protect the area during extreme flooding.

Hidalgo County voters — heeding the warnings of county officials to not wait for federal funding to fix the levees — passed a $100 million bond last year that includes $40 million to repair the most dilapidated portions.