Lawsuit seeks halt to construction of border

Phoenix - Two environmental groups filed suit Friday, asking a federal judge to halt construction of at least part of the border fence planned through Arizona.

Defenders of Wildlife and the Sierra Club want U.S. District Court Judge Ellen Huvelle to issue a restraining order blocking further work on a two-mile stretch of the fence that goes through the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area until the U.S. Department of Homeland Security conducts a legally required environmental impact study.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, contends the planned wall of up to 17 feet and some vehicle barriers will permanently alter not just the flow of the river but affect both wildlife and vegetation. And that, the legal papers contend, requires not just a study but a consideration of alternatives - and, perhaps, a decision not to build anything at all.

Friday's action lawsuit comes several days after the groups asked the federal agency to suspend construction of that section of the 370-mile stretch of fence being built from Calexico, Calif. , along Yuma County and on to Douglas.

Attorney Brian Segee said the Army Corps of Engineers and the Bureau of Land Management actually began work about a week ago. He said the government's apparent decision to ignore the request - and the speed at which the fence could now be finished - makes going to court for an immediate stay the only option.

A restraining order would not ban construction of the fence, but it would halt further work until the court has considered the legal issues.

He said Congress, in ordering fence construction last year, did not exempt the Department of Homeland Security from various environmental laws. He acknowledged another federal statute does permit Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff to waive any laws. But Segee said Chertoff has not invoked that authority, meaning his agency still must comply with environmental regulations.

Segee said he is not ignoring the national security concerns. But he said Chertoff's agency has agreed to study the environmental impacts of a similar fence in south Texas. That, he said, "illustrates that the public interests inherent in both environmental preservation and national security are not mutually exclusive, but can be integrated with each others.

Repeated requests for comment from Chertoff's office were not answered.

According to the lawsuit, the BLM already has agreed not to build a wall across the entire southern edge of the San Pedro National Conservation Area.

There would be temporary vehicle barriers for nearly 1,500 feet in the river's corridor and floodplain. Those barriers, Segee said, apparently would be removed during seasonal flooding. And permanent vehicle barriers - and not fencing - would be erected within five dry washes covering a total of 275 feet.

But Segee said the BLM has acknowledged that construction along the border will affect the river. He said the agency's own report concluded that fencing across more than 60 nearby desert washes will "significantly alter and rapidly destabilize'' them, resulting in increased erosion and sediment into the San Pedro River. And that, according to BLM's own report, will cause the river to "adjust laterally'' causing "bank failure and loss of riparian vegetation.''

Segee said that, in turn, will affect the wildlife in the area.