Historic border canyon near San Diego is filled in

[Judi Lynn]

Historic border canyon near San Diego is filled in
Jan 3, 2009 8:36 PM (3 hrs ago) AP

SAN DIEGO (Map, News) - An historic canyon, used in years past by cattle rustlers and bandits as an illegal border crossing between Mexico and the United States and more recently by illegal immigrants, is slated to be wiped off the map.

The federal government's project to fill in Smuggler's Gulch with dirt is scheduled to be completed by May. The government has lopped off the top of nearby hills and shoved some 1.7 million cubic yards of earth into the pass and neighboring Goat Canyon.

Environmentalists fear that the project will harm endangered fauna, the Tijuana Estuary and Native American sites.

"We've lost sensitive habitat and the estuary is now threatened," Jim Peugh, conservation chairman of the San Diego Audubon Society, told the Los Angeles Times.

More:
http://www.examiner.com/a-1774868~Historic_border_canyon_near_San_Diego_is_filled_in.html

[Gidney N Cloyd]

1. Ha! The Onion just keeps getting funnier and funnier.

[Wapsie B]

2. Don't worry. John Stossel will tell us everything's ok.

:eyes:

[XemaSab]

3. This blows

I'm not cool with this at all.

[DCKit]

4. "Mountain-top Removal". Yeah, that'll go over well in CA. n/t

[nosmokes]

5. How da hell did he manage to do this w/o any enviro reports? Where

was a single bureaucrat with the nads to step forward and say this ain't right? Or was it the lack of cover from spineless Democrats farther up the food chain that allowed dimson to wave his magic pen and negate any EPA rules for this project that is destroying already severely damaged habitat for unique and endangered species? Someday we're gonna need a liberal voice in this country, a true liberal voice, one that isn't afraid to stand up for labor and the environment,one that's willing to fight the bloody corporations for the good of the citizenry, a voice that empowers instead of equivocating.

[Kolesar]

6. Bill Moyers reported that anti-immigration groups issued death threats to US Congressmen

...during the "immigration debate" in Washington. The death threats were instigated by RW radio hosts. The FBI intervened.

Did you notice that the Immigration Bill never even got a HEARING?

www.pbs.org
http://www.pbs.org/search/search_results.html?q=moyers+immigration

[Joanie Baloney]

7. All part of "National Security" !!11!!!!1

From the LA Times article cited in the LBN cross post:

Environmentalists for years stalled the $60-million plan to double-fence the three miles of border canyons and mesas. They pushed for projects that would improve border enforcement without harming the environment. In 2004, the California Coastal Commission refused to grant permits to complete the fence, saying the harm to sensitive habitats outweighed the security benefits.

But the Department of Homeland Security in 2005 waived all environment laws, the first time it had done so since Congress granted it the authority. Border Patrol officials argued that thousands of people every year still tried crossing through that stretch of the border, and that the rugged terrain prevented agents from accessing the area.

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-me-gulch4-2009jan04,0,5108507.story

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3671319


-JB