Contact Us - Photo Gallery - Fence Reviews - Articles

Homeland Defense Secretary Blamed For Flooding at Border Fence

As I researched a topic for the Border Fence Weekly update, which I will be trying to post on every Wednesday, the standout articles this week were mostly about flooding taking place during a July 12, 2008 storm. At first this didn’t seem much like “big news” as flooding can happen anywhere during a heavy rain storm. But, as I read more articles on the topic I discovered what appears to be design flaws in the border fence itself, which causes debris to get caught in the fence. This debris, in turn, causes several feet of water to back up to the fence.

The Houston Chronicle reported that critics of the border fence in southwest Arizona insist that hasty construction caused the flooding of the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument (OPCNM). When the heavy rains came, debris was caught in the fence which then caused substantial erosion to some of the fence’s foundation due to the backwater pooling.

Homeland Defense Secretary Michael Chertoff waived environmental laws to hasten construction of the 670 miles of fences and other barriers planned by year’s end along the nearly 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border. This, is what critics say is the problem.

In flash floods, water and debris accumulate very rapidly and the flow can change directions quickly, create gullies and cause even more erosion. Robin Silver, a spokesman for the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a statement: “While the Bush administration may claim it’s taking environmental impacts of the border wall into consideration, building wire mesh fences across washes prone to debris-laden floods is fundamentally flawed”.

A recent report by the Organ Pipe monument?s staff concluded that the fencing failed to meet water-runoff standards set by the Army corps and failed to comply with a final environmental assessment by the Border Patrol. Barry Morrissey, a Customs and Border Protection spokesman in Washington, said engineers would talk with Park Service officials to discuss the findings and recommendations.

Federal officials claim they followed environmental regulations despite the waivers, but local groups say they raised concerns a year ago based on local flash-flooding knowledge. “It doesn’t take an expert hydrologist to anticipate the potential for these walls to become like dams,” one critic vented. Last month, a flash flood created debris pileups along the fence and eroded patrol roads.

In conclusion, it appears once again the hand of the American Government has messed up, and will refuse to admit it. We can only hope they will at least take action to fix the problem so we the tax payers won’t be stuck with the bill when millions of dollars worth of fence has fallen down in a year or two due to erosion from these floodwaters.