Private Texas Border Wall Will Fall Into Rio Grande, Opponents Say
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Meanwhile, the project’s contractor, North Dakota-based Fisher Industries, continues to receive billions of dollars in government contracts. Two lawsuits are pushing back against the wall in South Texas—one from the federal agency that enforces border treaties with Mexico and another from a neighboring butterfly preserve. The late August engineering reports came after parties to the lawsuits were granted access to the wall, on private land, to inspect it on Aug. 3. Trials in the suits haven’t yet been scheduled.
Fisher Industries self-financed the $40 million three-mile stretch of wall, which it built directly on the Rio Grande riverbank near Mission, Texas, this year, over the objections of some neighbors and the binational agency that enforces treaties with Mexico. The critics argued the project would cause erosion that could shift the river’s course, and potentially the border itself. They believe that is now starting to happen, after gashes in the bank appeared under portions of the wall, months after it was built, they said.
“Fisher Industries’ private bollard fence will fail during extreme high flow events and further exacerbate damage at the failure site[s] and to adjacent lands,” wrote Mark Tompkins, an engineer working for the National Butterfly Center, which is claiming the wall could increase flooding on its property. He added that the July Category 1 hurricane was minor compared to large storms often seen there.
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Fisher Industries President Tommy Fisher argued in court late last year that authorities couldn’t prove his wall would harm the river. He said he was willing to build it on his own dime to try to show off his construction skills and win more federal contracts. On that front, Mr. Fisher has been successful. His company, which had no previous experience with government contracts, won its first in December, for $400 million, to build 31 miles of Arizona border wall, after public support from President Trump. A $1.3 billion contract for 42 miles followed. The most recent contract, for $289.5 million to build 17 miles of wall near Laredo, Texas, was announced last month.
“This billboard—and that’s what it is—has been used to get more than $2 billion in taxpayer contracts while [it] is going to fall into the river,” said Marianna Treviño-Wright, executive director of the National Butterfly Center, of the private wall. Ms. Treviño-Wright is suing both Fisher Industries and We Build the Wall, accusing the latter of defamation for tweeting that she supports cartels and smugglers. Attorneys for We Build the Wall said Thursday the organization’s assets were frozen when its principals were indicted, potentially compromising defense in the South Texas case.
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Despite his previous support of Mr. Fisher, Mr. Trump took aim at the wall over the summer. In response to a ProPublica investigation showing erosion there in July, Mr. Trump tweeted, “I disagreed with doing this very small (tiny) section of wall, in a tricky area, by a private group which raised money by ads. It was only done to make me look bad and [perhaps] it now doesn’t even work.”
https://www.wsj.com/articles/private-texas-border-wall-will-fall-into-rio-grande-opponents-say-11599768526 (subscription)
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