ACCESSION
NUMBER:369269
FILE ID:ECO302
DATE:11/30/94
TITLE:ANTI-DRUG ACTIVITIES HAVING LITTLE IMPACT ON ENVIRONMENT (11/30/94)
TEXT:*94113002.ECO TGDRGLD FULLER/te
ANTI-DRUG ACTIVITIES HAVING LITTLE IMPACT ON ENVIRONMENT
(Gains cited in control of smuggling along border) (610)
By Jim Fuller
USIA Science Writer
Washington -- A major federal study says significant gains have been made in
controlling drug smuggling and illegal immigration along the southwest
border of the United States with little adverse impact on the environment.
The environmental impact study, prepared by the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers, said that various military support activities, ranging from
reconnaissance operations to the building of roads, produced no significant
impacts on terrain and resources along the 3,200-kilometer-long U.S.-Mexico
border from Brownsville, Texas, to San Diego, California.
Officials of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) and a joint
military task force reported November 30 that these support activities were
necessary to help federal, state and local law enforcement agencies counter
the flow of illegal drugs and immigrants into the United States.
The study, known as the Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement -- the
largest report of its type ever prepared by the Corps of Engineers --
discussed the impacts of these activities on the biological and cultural
resources and the threatened and endangered species of the border region.
A military task force made up of personnel from the Army, Navy, Marines and
Air Force was responsible for conducting the support activities during the
past five years.
"These operations literally laid the groundwork for making unprecedented
gains in border enforcement against drug smuggling and illegal
immigration," INS Commissioner Doris Meissner told reporters at a signing
ceremony marking completion of the environmental impact study.
1
According to the study, the task force provided, among other things, eight
kilometers of lighting, 51 kilometers of reinforced fencing and 1,280
kilometers of access roads. It also provided technical and logistical
support for airborne reconnaissance, terrain mapping, imagery and
intelligence analysis.
"In other words," Meissner said, "the joint task force provided the
equipment operators, the technicians...and other support specialists to
make the necessary physical improvements in the border environment so that
our patrol agents could...do a better job in preventing smuggling and
illegal immigration."
The study said these activities produced no significant negative impact on
the environment along the U.S.-Mexico border, which includes the southern
borders of four states -- Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California.
A Corps of Engineers spokesman said that a number of re-seeding and
re-planting projects were initiated in areas where activities impacted on
the critical habitat of sensitive species.
Some environmental organizations expressed concern that the engineers, as
part of road construction activities, cleared about 1,000 hectares of
wildlife habitat consisting primarily of semidesert grasslands.
The report emphasized, however, that this amount of land is not
significantly large when one considers that the task force operated in a
region that overall included about 16 million hectares. It also noted that
the majority of the cleared land had already been disturbed from the
earlier construction of roads.
According to the report, the land-clearing operation destroyed or disturbed
seven specimens of two federally protected cacti species and one specimen
of federally protected vine species, but did not jeopardize their continued
existence.
The report emphasized that engineering activities in the border region also
had beneficial effects. It noted, for example, that surveys for protected
species prior to construction projects resulted in a vast expansion of
knowledge concerning the distribution of the species.
Additionally, it said, the habitats of birds such as the California
gnatcatcher, the least Bell's vireo and the California least tern were
protected and enhanced as a result of task force actions taken near San
Diego.
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