CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Contractors have begun installing a 17-mile stretch of new cylindrical buoys in the Rio Grande River to prevent illegal crossings from Mexico.
These are the first of 536 miles of buoys that the federal government plans to stretch from the Gulf of Mexico deep into South Texas.
The Department of Homeland Security has waived environmental laws and issued more than $1 billion in contracts to private companies to install them in continuous chains.
Each industrial-style buoy is more than 12 feet long and four to five feet in diameter. Unlike the original, spherical buoys, the new buoys are much larger, cylindrical and form a continuous barrier across the river.
Federal agencies have not made any environmental assessment or flood modeling for the border buoys available to the public.
Experts have criticized the secrecy surrounding the project and warn that the buoys could intensify flooding and change the river channel.
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