Culberson County doesn’t have power to stop it
Van Horn
Plans for a man camp housing border wall workers in the area around Van Horn came into clearer focus this week after an engineer gave a presentation to Culberson County Commissioners about the layout and water needs for a planned camp south of Van Horn. Luke LaLiberty, an engineer based in Montana with design firm Cushing Terrell, said that the 500-pad RV park site near Lobo would be operational for around two years “to support regional labor needs.”
The possibility of a large worker encampment in the area came to the fore around the end of March, when the Valentine town council hosted a meeting to address public concerns about a contractor approaching the city’s water manager to see if the beleaguered existing system could handle a temporary influx of workers. Around 100 people—more than the entire population of Valentine—showed up to that meeting to voice their concerns, and the project died.
In April, documents obtained by Big Bend Sentinel from the city of Presidio via the Texas Public Information Act suggested that a firm out of Odessa was seeking to build a man camp on land owned by La Junta Enterprises near Presidio Middle School. That project appears not to have moved forward—but in the meantime, trailers owned by border wall contractors have shown up at Loma Paloma RV Park in Presidio, sparking backlash on social media.
Plans for the Van Horn-area encampment surfaced at the end of last month when Jose “Pepe” Guevara of Pecan Grove Farms approached the Culberson County Underground Water Conservation District to ask about tapping in to more of the local water supply than they usually accessed under their permit to accommodate a man camp on their land. Guevara’s request from the board was more for clarification and not a formal request for a variance—Pecan Grove Farms is currently allotted 1,817 acre feet of water per year and typically uses less than half of their capacity.
LaLiberty’s presentation on Monday morning represented the first time that anyone involved in the construction of man camps or of the border wall itself spoke directly to the public—a notable development in an ongoing saga that’s been marked by confusion and misinformation. He explained that most of the infrastructure for the camp would be mobile, with the exception of a water treatment facility that would eventually need to be permitted by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), which could stay or go at the end of the project depending on the landowner’s wishes. “We’re still in the early stages of the actual layout and design of this, but we are working on the wastewater system,” LaLiberty explained. “It’s important for me to mention that all of the systems that we design will meet or exceed local and state requirements, and we’re not trying to get around any of those.”
LaLiberty also said that his company had run a water test that suggested that the aquifer could sustain the temporary strain on its pumping capacity and was planning a “lagoon system” for wastewater treatment. The company was also working with local agencies to ensure that the man camp would have proper 911 addressing in case of an emergency.
Precinct 3 Commissioner Gilda Morales came prepared with tough questions for LaLiberty, mostly concerned with the logistics of building the camp and the adverse impacts of heavy construction traffic. She was also concerned about the potential strain on local first responders. “We have 10 deputies and the sheriff to cover thousands and thousands of acres—what happens if there’s an emergency in Van Horn and then you have an emergency down there [at the camp]?” she asked. “Are you pulling from our resources, or will they bring their own security?”
LaLiberty said he wasn’t sure, since he was only an engineer hired to design and build the camp, but would pass the concern along to his client.
A few more of Morales’ questions were more abstract and personal—did LaLiberty enjoy the outdoors, and did he understand the scope of the project and the magnitude of the backlash against it? Was there a border wall in Montana, where his office is based?
LaLiberty declined to answer many of these questions, stressing instead his role in the project as an engineer. “That’s my job—to make sure that the people who live [near my contracted projects] are safe, and that the environment that we are impacting is minimally impacted.”
To satisfy the water needs for the camp, to be located at a pecan farm, the farm will need approval from the Culberson County Groundwater Conservation District to use its well for that purpose. The district considered the request at its last meeting but tabled the item for discussion on Thursday, May 14, at 2 p.m. at 1300 W. Broadway in Van Horn.