Border plants to be killed to reveal smugglers

[kpete]

Source: Houston Chronicle

Border plants to be killed to reveal smugglers
By DANE SCHILLER Copyright 2009 Houston Chronicle
March 24, 2009, 12:11AM
• • •

The U.S. Border Patrol plans to poison the plant life along a 1.1-mile stretch of the Rio Grande riverbank as soon as Wednesday to get rid of the hiding places used by smugglers, robbers and illegal immigrants.

If successful, the $2.1 million pilot project could later be duplicated along as many as 130 miles of river in the patrol’s Laredo Sector, as well as other parts of the U.S.-Mexico border.

Although Border Patrol and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials say the chemical is safe for animals, detractors say the experiment is reminiscent of the Vietnam War-era Agent Orange chemical program and raises questions about long-term effects.

“We don’t believe that is even moral,” said Jay Johnson-Castro Sr., executive director of the Rio Grande International Study Center, located at Laredo Community College, adjacent to the planned test area.

Read more: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/6335446.html

[ixion]

1. sure... turn the whole freakin' planet into a war zone...

paradise by any other word.

[Oregone]

2. Isn't there wildlife that lives there.

Poison a fucking river bank?

[XemaSab]

32. There's a LOT of wildlife that lives there

[Tim01]

3. 130 miles total?

Bring in the dozers! Christ,they don't have to poison the whole place.
Didn't they learn anything from agent orange?

[Doremus]

34. Give GeeDubya a case of Corona and let him loose on the brush. n/t

[L. Coyote]

39. That's $3 a linear foot, $16,154 a mile. I'll do a mile by machete for that money?

Give people real work, FCS!

[Summermoondancer]

51. Me too and it is a whole lot more environmentally friendly..

[tridim]

4. Or legalize the plant that is the root of the problem.

Ideas don't get much more idiotic than this.

[bitchkitty]

43. Marijuana in California and Oregon is

better by far then anything that comes out of Mexico. At least in my unlimited experience...

I think they're more likely smuggling coke and people.

[Summermoondancer]

52. Which plant?

the marijuana plant or the coca leaf?

[silverojo]

55. Or quit smoking the dope that the criminals want to sell

Better for your health, doesn't cost the government a thing.

But you can't talk sense to drunks and stoners.

[tridim]

57. I have never bought "dope" in my life.

What are you talking about?

[Runcible Spoon]

59. What a stupid comment.

Marijuana is by far the least harmful of any recreational substance, and is safer for you than going skiing without a helmet. It never killed anyone, and has medicinal benefits. I can find crap in your medicine cabinet that poses more of a harm to human health and life.

You will NEVER succeed in talking humans out of getting high, here or in any other country. Might as well just try to teach abstinence-only sex ed; same blindness towards human impulse and reality.

Legalize pot here and see how fast Mexican gangs lose their biggest source of revenue. Oh, and stop exporting our guns to them and allowing crooked federal agents from capitalizing on the drug trade.

Your ignorance is just mind-blowing.

[SammyWinstonJack]

60. !

[tularetom]

5. What could possibly go wrong with that plan?

My mind can't even begin to comprehend what a potential disaster this is.

Bank erosion, poisoning of surface and ground water supplies, contamination of crops, loss of wildlife habitat, loss of wildlife itself.

Not to mention the cost.

[hobbit709]

6. Aren't there several endangered species there?

[WolverineDG]

13. Yes, & people too

BP shot down any other idea, including the use of goats to eat the stuff.

dg

[Summermoondancer]

53. Yeah and animals and farms too

[Xithras]

7. An even more interesting question...

Why does it cost $2.1 million dollars to kill 5,800 feet of shrubs?

I don't have a problem with them removing the plants if they're really invasive as the linked article states. I DO have a problem with the idea of spraying large amounts of herbicides alongside a river. There are other methods that accomplish the same goal without the negative environmental side effects.

[No Elephants]

8. $10 needed to kill the plants. The rest is profit for some chemical company and some contractor.

[blackspade]

18. How about just bush hogging it every month or so?

Geez, that would just be a tractor and an operator for a couple of days after the initial clearing.
The clearing could be done without herdicides.
Sounds like a Monsanto givaway....

[Tim01]

36. Oh, hell I hadn't thought of that.

Monsanto. That's probably all that needs to be said.

[TXRAT2]

50. I sprayed 3 square miles of cactus for 18,000.00 a section

That price is ridiculous.

[MineralMan]

9. $2.1 Million?

Take one Caterpillar tractor with a blade, like the ones the Forest Service uses. Remove weed line for one mile. One day's work for the tractor, the driver, and the driver of the tow vehicle. Repeat as necessary.

What on earth are they thinking? It's brush clearing, for pete's sake, not rocket science.

[Pharlo]

10. I say we bring the

"Brush Clearing Former US President" out of retirement and make him do something useful to justify his hefty post presidential allowance. After all, the US taxpayers picked up the cost of his training on 'The Crawford Ranch'.

[watrwefitinfor]

15. I kick and recommend this POST. nt

[Kali]

21. finally a use for the POS!

YES!

[Donnachaidh]

22. I'll bring the stripey pajamas if we can chain Cheney & Rumsfeld to him

And make the 3 of those f*ckers finally do something FOR the country.

[Gman]

11. It's called Carrizo Cain

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arundo_donax and it grows to 10' tall or better. The areas along the river around Laredo are full of it.

There may be some small wildlife where they're talking about doing this. But the area is between 2 large cities, Laredo, TX and Nuevo Laredo, Mx. There wouldn't be any other wildlife there than you would find in any urban area, including water moccasins, etc.

[WolverineDG]

12. They don't have this problem on the other side. Why?

Because people are allowed to harvest it & use it to make pinatas. But noooo, we have to POISON the ONE water source for two large cities because Fred & Martha Framus in Lower Podunk, PA are terrified of "illegal aliens."

dg

[slackmaster]

29. It's non-native and destructive of American wetlands

It's a huge problem in some of the riparian areas of Southern California. It displaces native vegetation and is extremely difficult to eradicate.

[XemaSab]

33. Are they only killing the arundo?

I doubt it.

[slackmaster]

47. Where Arundo gets established, no other plants grow

It looks very much like a bamboo stand.

But I'm sure they are killing other plants, because Arundo doesn't grow everywhere. It needs a constant water supply.

[Name removed]

14. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[tekisui]

16. This is the dumbest idea I have heard when it comes to border issues.

How stupid can they be?

[winyanstaz]

17. Vietnam vets are dropping dead still to this day from exfoliants.

Its a terrible and agonizing and slow way to die. I know as my husband died after struggling for every breath he took for over ten years.
It turns your bronchial tubes into something that just collapses and fills your lungs with fluids.
He and his fellow soldiers were in Nam and were in zones where they sprayed Agent Orange (exfoliant) several times.
In Nam, to this day, the people suffer in those areas.
This is a terrible idea and will harm not just the plants but the people, the water tables, the wildlife and the planet.
Please, don't go there.

[dipsydoodle]

19. If you were in the UK

you'd understand how funny that headline is. What you call the "back yard" we refer to as garden and what isn't lawn or paved whatever is border. Makes it sound like someone trampling on the begonias and marigolds.

[jb5150]

20. Good Lord

How long before they mine the area? Have these guys every read a history book? Crime went down after the repeal of prohibition.

[damntexdem]

23. Mr. Border Patrol, tear down that wall!

And stop killing off all the flora, and likely the fauna, around it.

[Summermoondancer]

54. I second that post!

[williesgirl]

24. Just from a cost standpoint, how could one mile's chemical cost $2.1 million? This

is highway robbery of our tax dollars and needs to be stopped by some judge. rec'd

[harmonicon]

25. how ridiculous

Not only a waste of money and resources, but a waste which also causes tremendous harm to the environment. Way to go, assholes.

[greenbird]

26. When will we ever, ever ever

learn.

[crikkett]

27. NOOOOOOOOOO!

[Hulk]

28. Another disgusting overreaction by the US Immigration Service...

We don't have sensors for life we could use to detect human activity? Gosh, I thought we had more technology that good old fashion poison that we can soak into the soil all along the river bank with Mexico.

How absurd...AGAIN!! Dupont will enjoy the idea, I'm sure....as will the other poison chemical companies in the US.

I wouldn't even be so upset if we bull dozed out a path...but how about TECHNOLOGY of detecting life movement along our borders? Hell, we can do it in the hills of Pakistan and Afghanistan. Can't we put it to some good use along our borders???

I guess I thought we were further ahead on this than we apparently are.

Bring home our 150,000 troops for this criminal occupation in Iraq and defend our borders once and for all. The slave trade is just as critical along the borders as the drug and arms war. We are very confused as a nation with our actions and priorities.

[izquierdista]

30. They could do it cheaper

If they got some of those guys hanging out in front of Home Depot early in the morning and handed them all machetes.

[XemaSab]

31. Outrageous!

I've birded along that area, and the Rio Grande is the richest stretch of habitat for hundreds of miles.

[rcrush]

35. What the hell?

First they throw more guns and money and troops on the border to stop the violence now we are going to poison the land around there? Can we drop ebola on Mexico while were at it?

[L. Coyote]

37. Just keep killing the Earth until we realize Peak Oxygen has happened. Why not?

What the hell, there are billions of planets anyway!

[glitch]

38. I am getting whiplash -- one minute I am applauding the EPA halting of mountaintop removal permits

the next I am booing this dumbass idea, hopefully this one just slipped through the cracks and the EPA will halt this one too. ASAP.

[Kali]

41. Homeland security is exempt from all those pesky regulations.

[glitch]

42. Gawd.

Needless to say, that should change too.

[dkofos]

40. Brilliant!! That will stop them.

[bitchkitty]

44. When all else fails, poison everything!

Yea, that's the ticket.

[TygrBright]

45. ahhh... a page right out of the "destroy the village to save it" playbook

I think the Administration needs to pay some attention to cleaning the wackjobs out of the Border Patrol leadership, pronto.

amazedly,
Bright

[alfredo]

46. Infrared glasses would work better.

[xxqqqzme]

48. Jeez if dimson isn't busy

maybe he'd like to clear some brush.

[iamthebandfanman]

49. wtf? n/t

[sofa king]

56. They're not going to be able to dress up like cacti, then.

Which I long ago read was one of the cunning plans that Border Patrol was entertaining.

[paparush]

58. More govt funded deforestation. Brilliant!

[eppur_se_muova]

61. Kill them? Shouldn't we at least question them under torture first?

Let DDDDDick Cheney have that job -- it'll keep him out of the bunker (where he might taint the groundwater).

[greenbird]

62. Update on this claims that poisoning plans are on hold

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/03/25/mexico.border.herbicid...