IBWC to raise levees

Work has begun to repair the Rio Grande Valley levee system in Cameron County and is expected to be completed before hurricane season, federal officials said Tuesday.

“I think we have a good plan and I think we can get it done within the next few months,” International Boundary and Water Commissioner Carlos Marin said.

The IBWC is raising 23 miles of the levee system from Donna to Brownsville by 30 inches in some portions to provide the area with adequate protection from the 100 year flood, Marin said.

In the Brownsville area, repairs are being done on the levee near Milpa Verde and Monsees Road in the Southmost area, officials said.

The IBWC received $1.5 million in federal funding to conduct the work in Cameron County, which is being done by IBWC employees.

Although levee inspections show that it needs improvements, the levee is not in “dilapidated” conditions as has been reported in the media, Marin said.

“The levee itself is structurally safe. There are no holes,” he said. Media reports “make it seem like our levees area falling apart and they are not.”

Levee inspections show portions of it have to be filled in because of continuous usage by the public and most recently by an increase of U.S. Border Patrol agents patrolling along the Rio Grande. The plan is to raise the portions that are deficient in order that they meet Federal Emergency Management Agency standards.

Some areas need to be increased by 30 inches while others may need to be raised by 8 inches.

“It’s got to be a continuous process. You can’t go back to just maintaining (levees) because then you are going to have the same problem,” Pct. 4 Commissioner Edna Tamayo said. Her territory includes parts of Highway 281, which is adjacent to the levees.

Marin said the IBWC continues to work with the Department of Homeland Security regarding its plans to build a border fence or retaining wall.

The IBWC doesn’t want improve the levee system only for the DHS to tear them down in order to construct a border fence, Marin said.

“We want to make sure they put it where it won’t interfere with our efforts.”

The IBWC and Rio Grande Valley officials are pushing for the DHS to consider the construction of a retaining wall rather than building a border fence between the U.S. and Mexico.

Reports surfaced last year that the DHS planned to build a fence with about 70 miles passing through the Valley.

The proposed maps have 17 miles of the fencing going through the Brownsville area with some of the fence cutting through local sanctuaries, the local college campus and the city owned properties and parks.

Valley officials have searched for alternatives to the border fence that they say would affect the economy and relations with Mexico.

“This is not going to change our efforts in continuing to promote to the Department of Homeland Security to use the retaining wall concept. I think we still need to continue pursuing that as a community,” County Judge Carlos H. Cascos said.

The DHS hopes to have the fence built by the end of this year.

Although the levee system has needed improvement for several years, upgrading it was brought to the forefront following the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Marin said.

The increase in funding to make the improvements would not have occurred had it not been for local Congressmen pushing for the money, officials said.

Marin also said he has been in contact with his counterparts in Mexico to show them what the United States is doing in hopes that officials there will take “reciprocal action,” for its levee system.

“We don’t intend to raise our levees higher than what is required…we just don’t want to push everything into Mexico.”