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From: (b) (6)

To: (b) (6)
SELF, JEFFREY D;
ADAMS, ROWDY D; GIDDENS, GREGORY; AHERN, JAYSON P; FLOSSMAN, LOREN W; (b) (6)
Subject: RE: Environmentalists call on Hidalgo County leaders to scrap levee-wall combo plan
Date: Tuesday, March 18, 2008 8:25:03 AM

Asking (b) (6) to address.

(b) (6)
Director
Media Relations Division
Office of Public Affairs
U.S. Customs and Border Protection
(b) (6)

From: (b) (6)

Sent: Tuesday, March 18, 2008 7:50 AM
To: (b) (6)
;
SELF, JEFFREY D; ADAMS, ROWDY D; GIDDENS, GREGORY; AHERN, JAYSON P; FLOSSMAN, LOREN W;
(b) (6)
Subject: RE: Environmentalists call on Hidalgo County leaders to scrap levee-wall combo plan

Good morning (b)

(6)
Have we reached out to the filmmaker, (b) (6) ?

If not, do you think it would be a good idea to try and provide our perspective by arranging interviews
for him with CBP representatives, such as Chief Vitiello?

(b) (6)
Secure Border Initiative
U.S. Customs and Border Protection
(b) (6)
For more information about the Secure Border Initiative, visit www.cbp.gov/sbi or contact us at SBI_info@dhs.gov.

From: (b) (6)

Sent: Monday, March 17, 2008 6:49 PM
To: (b) (6)
SELF, JEFFREY D;
ADAMS, ROWDY D; GIDDENS, GREGORY; AHERN, JAYSON P; FLOSSMAN, LOREN W; (b) (6)

Subject: Environmentalists call on Hidalgo County leaders to scrap levee-wall combo plan

Environmentalists call on Hidalgo County leaders to scrap levee-wall combo plan

17 March 2008
Steve Taylor

EDINBURG, March 17 - Environmentalists have called on

Hidalgo County commissioners to scrap their agreement with
the Department of Homeland Security to build an 18-foot high
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concrete wall along 22 miles of the county’s levees.

“I think we need to not support the wall in any fashion,

whether it’s a fence or whether it’s a concrete wall,” said Ann
Cass, a member of the No Border Wall Coalition and
executive director of Proyecto Azteca.

Cass was one of a number of environmentalists to meet with

Hidalgo County Judge J.D. Salinas and Hidalgo County
Drainage Director Godfrey Garza about the levee-wall plan in
a conference room at the county courthouse on Friday.

The meeting was taped by award-winning filmmaker Wayne Martin Hagne, executive
Ewing for a one-hour documentary about the border wall, to director of the Valley
be aired on PBS’s Bill Moyers Journal in October. Nature Center, and Wayne
Bartholomew, executive
The other environmentalists and community leaders present director of Frontera
were Martin Hagne, executive director of the Valley Nature Audubon, listen to
Center, Wayne Bartholomew, executive director of Frontera discussions on the levee-
Audubon, Juanita Valdez-Cox, director of La Unión del wall project. (Photo:
Pueblo Entero, Fernando Flores, a Los Caminos del Rio board RGG/Steve Taylor)
member, and Rey Anzaldua, a Granjeno landowner.

The two-hour discussion was detailed and absorbing, with Salinas and Garza explaining why
the county was pursuing the levee-fence plan with DHS, and the environmentalists arguing
that the proposal was no better for wildlife than DHS’s original border fence plan. Four
Border Patrol agents were present as observers but did not say much.

“What I am hearing is that sometimes a fence is better for animals than this (levee-wall)
structure, is that what I am hearing?” Salinas asked at one point.

“Absolutely,” the environmentalists answered in unison.

Bartholomew later told the Guardian why the levee-wall plan was no better than the original
border fence plan.

“In my opinion, the levee-wall plan is a worse alternative as far as environmental impacts
go,” Bartholomew said. “There is far more habitat on the river side of the levees. You put a
wall in right up against relatively pristine habitat, the only habitat we have left in the Valley,
and its impact is going to extend beyond the footprint of the wall.”

During the meeting, Salinas argued that the “one good thing” about combining the border
wall plan with repair of the levees was that $1.5 million a mile would be shaved off the cost
of construction. “By putting both pots of money together, we can do more miles,” he said.

Salinas said there was also an urgent need to move forward with the levee-wall plan because
of the pressure FEMA was exerting.

“I just hope everybody understands that FEMA is pushing us under the gun to make sure we
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do something to certify these levees so our local taxpayers won’t be burdened with
purchasing flood insurance,” Salinas said.

FEMA plans to issue new flood zone maps in 2009. “We can’t wait until then to start
working,” Salinas said.

Garza said repair of the county’s levees had to be 75 to 80 percent completed by the end of
2008, otherwise FEMA would issue its flood maps with large swathes of Hidalgo County
included.

Cass said it defied belief that FEMA would tell the county to get its levees fixed when the
responsibility lies with the federal government. She said Hidalgo County leaders should not
have to think they must cut a deal with DHS just because FEMA wanted to put out new
flood zone maps.

“Forget about the FEMA deadline. As a community, we need to tell Judge Salinas to back
away from the agreement with DHS and say, we will support you as a community in getting
Congress to pay for the repair of the levees and we need to act now,” Cass told the Guardian
later.

“I understand his (Salinas’s) concern is how to get the money to fix the levees and I don’t
think anybody in that room disagreed with that concern. But, let’s back off from DHS. DHS
has not played fairly down here in the Valley. They are not forthright with information. They
are not forthright in following the laws.”

Cass joined Hagne and Bartholomew in saying community would get behind Salinas if he
went to Congress and demanded that the federal government fix the levees.

“We need to really press Congress. How can FEMA give our county judge a deadline to fix
the levees when Congress is not going to pay for it and it is their responsibility?” Cass asked.

“I say, forget the FEMA deadline, go to Congress and say we have another potential Katrina
here in the Rio Grande Valley. Forget about the wall, put the money into fixing our levees.
That’s the stance we need to take.”

Hagne pointed out that U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, had added language to a
major appropriations bill in December that gives Homeland Security Secretary Michael
Chertoff more flexibility in how he approaches border security.

“Our county judge, Mr. Salinas, can really back off from this subject. He is not bound by or
held hostage by DHS and its plans,” Hagne told the Guardian later.

“Through the Hutchison amendment they are not bound by law to build a solid structure
anymore. It can be virtual; it can be more people on the ground. The logic that we have to
build something because somebody is going to is false.”

Asked if a border fence was better for wildlife than a levee-wall, Hagne said: “That is kind of
a sticky subject. I would rather see no wall or any structure because of wildlife issues. But, I
think, probably, in certain instances, the original fence plan might be better than the concrete
wall on the levee. I would rather see neither because both will have a strong impact on
wildlife.”
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Supporting the levee-wall plan, Garza introduced a new argument into the equation. He said
that, engineering-wise, a concrete retaining wall was better than an earthen bank. He also
said a vertical concrete wall would require less easement space.

“Some of the segments of levees are so deteriorated; the materials so bad, some of the levees
will have to be torn out. It’s got to go down to natural ground and be reconstructed up. Put
wall in front of it and you do not have to do that,” Garza said. “By putting the concrete wall
we have a stronger, better, levee.”

Louis Jones, an engineer with Dannenbaum Engineering, agreed. Dannenbaum is working

with the county on the levee-wall plan.

“The levee structure itself becomes much stronger (with a concrete wall) because you are not
relying solely on the structural integrity of the soil, which in some cases is of concern. It
increases the safety factor,” Jones said.

Cass responded: “Can it not be stronger without it looking like we are in a militarized zone?”

Hagne said the problem with an 18-foot high concrete wall is animals such as the bobcat,
jaguarundi, and ocelot, would have to travel around it. “Having an 18-foot sheer concrete
wall is going to totally do away with the wildlife corridor’s purpose. If an animal cannot
cross that, why have the corridor?” Hagne said.

Jones responded that he had once worked on an engineering project Brownsville where an
electronic chip had been placed on an ocelot. The ocelot was tracked swimming the Rio
Grande, crossing over highways and even making it to South Padre Island. “To say they
cannot move one mile down the road to cross a levee is, in my experience… they do do that,”
Jones said.

The representatives from the non-profit groups also told Salinas they were also concerned
that the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) was not being followed. Under NEPA,
stakeholders are given a public comment period once a draft Environmental Impact Statement
(EIS) has been issued. However, no draft EIS is planned for the levee-wall project.

“Every citizen who lives in this Valley is a stakeholder and right now they have all been
excluded from making meaningful comment under the NEPA guidelines. The process is
supposed to be inclusive,” Bartholomew said.

The environmentalists thanked Salinas for agreeing to meet them. They said they learned a
lot more from him than they have DHS.