OBP005126

From: (b) (6)

To: (b) (6)
Subject: Environmental ITP
Date: Friday, May 11, 2007 7:55:00 AM

(b) (6) ,

I have a few questions to bring back from the ITP yesterday.

The group is concerned with work to be done in Brownfield – essentially; the question
was - is this a project we need to kill ourselves over from an operational standpoint?
It will, according to them, be very expensive and will require alternative arrangements
due to difficulties with environmental. I understand this section of border will require
building on land designated as wilderness, and I don’t mean within the Roosevelt
Reservation. (I need a set of maps of the border) The point is we might be able to
get much more bang for the buck elsewhere.

Regarding the Calexico/Yuma dunes areas, are we considering renaming the temp.
vehicle barriers as Vehicle Barriers, understanding that if we placed a fence or VBs in
the dunes, it could become very hard to find in a short period of time. I’ve worked that
area, and in a portion of it, you can bet a dune (perhaps 100 feet tall or more) will
completely envelop a section of fence in relatively short order. Unless we want to
clear sand from the fence as the highway department has to do on I-8 on occasion, I
am not sure we can build permanent anything out there (in portions) and expect it to
work well. Another issue is recreational use. Right now there are lots of folks tooling
around all over the desert on ATV/sand rails/etc. without regard for the (somewhat
invisible) border. I am sure we’d rather place an easily recognized fence on the line;
however, the way it is set up now, vandalism is not a big issue, as agents work south
of the TVBs. Anyway, this is something I’d like to be able to speak to with the ITP.
From an enforcement/safety standpoint, the daily big issue there is DTs. They are
able to drive up to the VBs, unload, and re-load into a vehicle that pulls up on I-8 to
pick them up. If the barriers were on the line, it would be a matter of breaching,
driving through and onto the interstate. I’m getting wordy, sorry, but I will also say
that my experience there is 3 yrs old, so some things may have changed.

Are we insisting on placing barriers next to each other the entire length to count a
mile, or does a hill top deemed to be not drivable, surrounded by barriers in the
accessible portions of the valleys count as a section of border covered by VBs?This
issue is big from the western edge of the Lordsburg area on over to Douglas, and
perhaps on over to NGL. It also is an issue in the Big Bend area. The ITP was very
concerned about that area, as according to them, much road will have to be worked
to place only a few barriers.

Should we include FWS/BLM in ITP – I had a moment to speak with Chief Self
regarding this in the AM, and he told me that this is being addressed up the chain. I
told him I think it is important to include FWS and BLM in the environmental ITP. I
believe it would go far to prevent the bad press we are currently receiving, as they
would be in the loop, and would have ownership in the projects.
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