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Monday, May. 10, 1999

Flooding reignites battle over Rio Grande road

Environmentalists redouble efforts to remove caliche road they say endangers ecology, safety

Associated Press

   LAREDO - A six-mile caliche road on the banks of the Rio Grande has generated almost two years of legal controversy, and damage caused by rising flood waters has heated up the battle once again.
   Lawyers for environmentalists and government officials have argued in federal court about the environmental impact of the road since early 1998.
   Officials from the U.S. Border Patrol say the road plays a vital role in deterring crime along the river. The road is part of the Border Patrol's Operation Rio Grande, a program with the mission of extending the reach of Border Patrol agents along the banks of the river and away from the populated downtown areas.
   "It provides quick access for EMS units and helps in border safety initiatives," Mike Herrera, spokesman for the Laredo branch of the U.S. Border Patrol told the Laredo Morning Times. "The object of Operation Rio Grande is to improve the quality of life by reducing crime, and the road has helped us do just that."
   Environmentalists opposed to the road claim that it will increase traffic and pollution near the river, speed up erosion and harm endangered species.
   A group of environmentalists from the Rio Grande International Study Center in Laredo sought a preliminary injunction in federal court in early 1998, asking the court to stop the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from building the road until an adequate environmental assessment was done. The effort failed.
   The latest debate focuses on repairing the damage done by flooding in the last days of August 1998. There are two sinkholes in the road which make it impassable and inaccessible in many areas.
   "(The Border Patrol) said the road is still passable, which we find kind of amazing," said Amy Johnson, an attorney from Austin who represents the environmentalists. "Their definition of passable is a lot different from mine."
   Johnson said her clients asked the Border Patrol not to build in the floodplain, but they did anyway. The environmentalists point to the flood damage as evidence that the Border Patrol did not take the proper environmental precautions when building the road.
   Border Patrol officials said they did, and the court agreed. George Gunnoe, assistant chief patrol agent for the U.S. Border Patrol, said the agency has been doing these projects for 13 years without violating environmental policies.
   "The judge ruled in our favor (on the preliminary injunction) because we have complied with these measures in the past," Gunnoe said. "We have to comply with all sorts of rules and regulations."
   A Laredo-area professor of biology, Jim Earhart, who has studied the river for many years, said that the erosion caused by the road is significant.
   "When we get some big rains, it's really going to go," he said.
   Active duty military units will begin repairs on the two sinkholes in a few months. The court still must rule on some remaining claims by the environmentalists.
   

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  © 1999 Corpus Christi Caller Times, a Scripps Howard newspaper. All rights reserved.