Environmentalists File Suit to Stop Plans for Calif Border Fence

Elliot Spagat, sfgate.com., Feb. 10

Environmental groups asked a federal judge Tuesday to halt construction of a new border fence on the U.S.-Mexican border south of San Diego.

The Sierra Club, San Diego Audubon Society, San Diego Baykeeper and other groups allege the Department of Homeland Security violated the National Environmental Policy Act by failing to fully consider potential harm to the environment.

The Bush administration contends the fence and a patrol road are needed to improve security on the westernmost 3.5-mile leg of the U.S.-Mexico border. Environmentalists say the project would erode soil just south of a 2,531-acre federally protected estuary that is a refuge for threatened and endangered birds, plants and fish.

An existing fence is falling apart in coastal stretches. Further east of the coast, the government already has erected secondary fencing, including a new 14-foot-high mesh fence that is angled at the top.

Environmentalists say flattening canyons to make room for the fence is overkill.

“It’s like cutting butter with a chainsaw,” Cory Briggs, a lead attorney in the case, told a news conference outside the federal courthouse.

The Border Patrol, which is part of the Homeland Security Department, said it is committed to the project.

“If we are confronted with a lawsuit, it is simply one of the hurdles we are willing to address to achieve the goal of security,” Border Patrol spokesman Richard Kite said.

The suit, filed in U.S. District Court, comes eight days before the state Coastal Commission considers whether to approve the fence. The commission staff has recommended against the proposal.