SAN YGNACIO, TX – San Ygnacio residents and members of the No Border Wall Laredo Coalition will host a July 25 meeting at the Plaza Blas María Uribe in the historic Zapata County town of San Ygnacio to discuss the detrimental effects of the installation of Department of Homeland Security (DHS) buoys on the Rio Grande. The Saturday morning event begins at 9 a.m. with coffee and merienda.
San Ygnacio organizers have extended an invitation to the general public and to residents of Laredo and other upriver and downriver communities who, if the proposed wall reaches completion, will share the same reality of no access to the life-giving Río Grande and its environmental assault under the unjust banner of at least 30 waived protective federal laws.
The massive defoliation by Kiewit Construction bulldozers of the sandy river vega over the last few weeks has destroyed miles of the familiar landscape of a thriving riparian habitat for birds and other wildlife.
The bare earth marks the wall’s projected trajectory on which Kiewit has been awarded a no-bid contract of $523.9 million to build 25.1 miles of bollard wall through Zapata County. Another massive no-bid contract awarded by DHS went to Spencer Construction for $269.2 miles to install 56.4 miles of buoys in the county.
The cost per mile of the steel wall is $21 million and an additional cost of $4.8 million per mile for buoys, an incredible taxpayer-funded cost per mile of $25,672,510.
The event’s agenda will be conducted by environmentalist Elsa Hull, architect and conservationist Chip Briscoe, and historic preservationist Christopher Rincon.
Hull, who was arrested June 6 for trespass by Zapata County deputies, though never charged, has documented the vast stripping of riverbank vegetation that has been nature’s safeguard against erosion and flood damage.
“As the events of last week have shown us, the one-ton buoys can unmoor in a flood event and move quickly downriver. Not only does their movement evidence that their intended purpose to stop undocumented river crossings is a failure; it also tells us that in a major flood event the buoys afloat could damage international bridge infrastructure, municipal water intakes on the river, and private property,” she said.
Hull will address the accumulation of debris and sediment around the buoys that alter the river’s flow and cause flooding, and how that sediment and turbidity affect the quality of the municipal water supplies of San Ygnacio, Zapata, and upriver and downriver towns.
San Ygnacio and the Rio Grande
“San Ygnacio has a unique relationship with the Río Grande. As vast clearcutting preparations begin for the proposed erection of border barriers near the town, many residents are having to review that relationship and painful conflicts with the U.S. government from the past,” said Briscoe.
He continued, “Construction of the Falcon Dam and Reservoir in the early 1950s led to condemnation of numerous ranching communities downstream.
“San Ygnacio would have been on that list except for a petition organized by a local group of leaders and veterans. That petition led to the exclusion of San Ygnacio from the federal ‘Taking’ of land along the Rio Grande for the purposes of flood control and management of water resources. We are exploring whether or not the federal government today is honoring that exclusion,” he concluded.
Rincon will address the heroic efforts of those Zapatans and residents of San Ygnacio, some who were World War II veterans who secured 200 signatures on a 1951 petition to have San Ygnacio excepted from condemnation, relocation, and inundation.
“Those signatures spared historic San Ygnacio the fate of resting in ruins on the reservoir floor like Old Zapata, Lopeño, Uribeño, Ramireño, and parts of Guerrero Viejo. We wish we had all of their names to thank them for saving this place that resonates so deeply in our hearts,” he said.
Following the presentation in the plaza there will be a procession to the San Ygnacio Bird Sanctuary and a brief ceremony.
For further information, call Elsa Hull at (956) 740-1228.
