Former National Park Service officials are urging the Trump administration not to waive dozens of environmental laws as it looks to build new border barriers and roads in the Big Bend region of Texas.
In a Thursday letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, five former top Big Bend National Park officials warned against the installation of border walls, vehicle barriers, paved roads or utilities, saying they would represent an “egregious assault on the integrity of the entire National Park System.”
“We all agree that we need a secure border at Big Bend. Collectively, we have spent decades working with the Border Patrol and local law enforcement leaders to ensure so,” states the letter, shared exclusively with POLITICO’s E&E News.
“But a physical wall, additional paved roads, vehicle barriers, or other large scale infrastructure projects within the park are not the way to accomplish this,” continued the letter, signed by former superintendents Bob Krumenaker, Cindy Ott-Jones, Bill Wellman, John H. King, Robert Arnberger and H. Gilbert Lusk and former Deputy Superintendent David Elkowitz.
The letter is also on the letterhead of Keep Big Bend Wild, where Krumenaker serves as the chair, and the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks.
A current Customs and Border Patrol map of planned projects shows the park is targeted for vehicle barriers, technology like cameras and sensors, patrol roads, or a mix of all three options.
CBP awarded a $1.7 billion contract May 11 for what it calls the “Big Bend 4 Wall Project,” which includes 17 miles of vehicle barriers, along with another 205 miles of patrol roads or remote technology depending on the location.
A CBP spokesperson said current plans for the region include the building of a mix of gravel roads or other unmaintained surfaces. Paved routes aren’t envisioned, he said.
“It does not involve the construction of a 30-foot-high barrier in Big Bend National Park, Big Bend Ranch State Park or the Black Gap Wildlife Management Area,” CPB spokesperson John Mennell said in a statement. “Instead, it utilizes technology like cameras and sensors, along with limited, low-profile, post-on-rail barriers in strategic areas designed to restrict vehicle access while leveraging the natural barriers that already exist in the area.”
The Trump administration has issued multiple notices that it plans to waive dozens of environmental laws, including the National Environmental Policy Act and the Endangered Species Act, as it looks to increase physical security across the nation’s border with Mexico.
Earlier this month, DHS indicated it would waive those laws along a 60-mile stretch of the Rio Grande. In February, the department announced it wanted to build walls along a 200-mile span of remote desert that cut through the park.
It appeared to back off the latter in the face of widespread opposition, asserting it would instead utilize remote technology to monitor certain areas.
The former NPS officials said even new utility installations, roads and lights could cause significant harm to the public lands.
“The diminishment of the area’s wild character, impeded access to the Rio Grande for recreation, and loss of opportunities to experience the darkest night sky in the nation if the infrastructure were lighted, would cause tremendous damage to the area’s economy, which is highly dependent upon tourism,” the letter states.
The officials asserted that Big Bend area is already well-protected thanks to its “rugged terrain, natural barriers, isolation, and distance from highways in Mexico.”
“The Sector, and the national park in particular, are not an area of high illegal entry, which is a prerequisite for your invoking the waiver,” the letter states.
