The agency says it will bypass rules requiring environmental studies before building on public land, hoping partly to ease the construction of prototypes for Trump’s proposed border wall in San Diego.<\/b>
\nThe Department of Homeland Security announced Tuesday it will use its authority to bypass environmental laws and other regulations to \u00ab\u00a0ensure the expeditious construction of barriers and roads\u00a0\u00bb near the U. S.-Mexico border south of San Diego.
\u00ab\u00a0The sector remains an area of high illegal entry for which there is an immediate need to improve current infrastructure and construct additional border barriers and roads, \u00a0\u00bb the agency said in a statement . \u00ab\u00a0To begin to meet the need for additional border infrastructure in this area, DHS will implement various border infrastructure projects.\u00a0\u00bb
The waiver, which focuses on 15 miles of contiguous land stretching eastward from the Pacific Ocean, would make it easier for the agency to embark on those \u00ab\u00a0infrastructure projects\u00a0\u00bb \u2014 which include building several prototypes of the border wall President Trump called for in a January executive action. The agency also plans to replace some sections of the fence that currently stands in the area.
As Reuters notes, the waiver exempts the agency from having to complete the environmental impact study required by law before it builds on public lands.
\u00ab\u00a0Last fiscal year 2016, Customs and Border Patrol apprehended more than 31,000 illegal aliens and seized about 1,300 pounds of cocaine just in the San Diego sector alone, \u00a0\u00bb Homeland Security spokesman David Lapan tells NPR’s Eric Westervelt.
Lapan also says its not the first time the agency has used such a waiver, noting the Department of Homeland Security under former Secretary Michael Chertoff invoked it five times.
Nevertheless, the move is likely to anger environmental activists, who have already lodged significant protests against Trump’s proposed border wall project.
Member station KPBS points out that the nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity already sued the federal government last month for failing \u00ab\u00a0to prepare and publish legally required environmental impact analyses for the border wall.\u00a0\u00bb
\u00ab\u00a0The proposed construction of the replacement border wall in San Diego, like many areas along the border lands, has a high concentration of endangered species, \u00a0\u00bb Brian Segee, the group’s senior attorney, tells NPR. \u00ab\u00a0There are a lot of impacts that can occur to the environment \u2014 especially in the absence of prior environmental studies.\u00a0\u00bb
\u00ab\u00a0And that’s exactly what these waivers do, \u00a0\u00bb Segee adds. \u00ab\u00a0They create a lawless situation whereby DHS and CPB will undertake this massive boondoggle of a border wall project, and they will do it without the benefit of key environmental laws like the National Environmental Policy Act, the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Water Act \u2014 the list goes on and on.\u00a0\u00bb
Still, DHS plans to forge ahead … on the replacement fencing, at least.
Lapan says building on the prototypes has been delayed by another set of protests \u2014 this time lodged against the department by some of the contractors whose bids were not selected. One of those protests remains under consideration by the Government Accountability Office.
Lapan expects now that work on the prototypes themselves might get underway as late as November.<\/p>\n

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