FEDS TO THE POOR: GO TO SPI, KEEP OFF BOCA CHICA

By Juan Montoya
Next Monday, a pilgrimage composed of Cameron County Commissioner for Precinct 1 Sofia Benavides, Parks Director Javier Mendez, Administrator Pete Sepulveda, Public Works Supervisor Louis Ara III, and chief legal counsel Bruce Hodge will travel to Corpus Christi to take on the feds.
Why call out the big guns to Corpitos?
Across the tables from our stalwart representatives will be seated honchos from the southern federal district representing the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Corps of engineers, and reps from the Texas General land Office.
The State of Texas does own land on Boca Chica which, technically speaking, is a state park. However, there are no park facilities on this park of more than 1,055 acres offering a variety of outdoor recreation on its land and adjacent beaches of Del Mar and Boca Chica, including swimming, birding, camping, fishing and surfing.
In the last few years, the USFW and conservation groups have bought land south of the entrance on Highway 4 for wildlife refuges.
North of the entrance, except for the park, most of the land adjacent to the beach is privately owned. Because of the Texas Open Beaches Act, landowners cannot close the beach to the public. Cameron County has had a contract with the GLO since the 1990s that leases Boca Chica State Park to the county for $1 a year. The lease requires that the county merely clean the beach periodically and the GLO reimburses the county at something like 75 percent for manpower and machinery.
Indeed, Public Works (the successor of Precinct 1 crews) periodically go out to the beach, about 23 miles east of Brownsville, and pick up the trash-filled 55-gallon drums and other trash that flows in from shrimp boats and from the mouth of the Rio Grande River some four miles south.
Therein lies the rub.
For the past few years, Public Works crews have employed a tractor-pulled rake to comb the beach for trash. The, crew use a tractor to help them lift the 55-gallon drums and dump them into their dump trucks.
The feds say they don't want the crews to use the rake anymore because it could damage the vegetation along the shore and they frown upon the use of the tractors to lift the heavy drums.
"They want our workers to lift the drums by hand and to pick up the trash," said Mendez. "It would increase our labor costs tremendously. The GLO lease puts a cap on the amount we can be reimbursed. There's no way we can do what they want without incurring huge labor costs."
In fact, Mendez said, emails from the feds urge county officials to encourage visitors to go to South Padre Island instead.
"A lot of the people who go to Boca chica can't afford to go to South Padre Island," Mendez said. "They take their lunch and coolers out there. There isn't any fee to enter Boca Chica like there is at Isla Blanca and other county parks at the Island. It's a poor people's beach."
In fact, many of us remember going to Boca Chica beach as high school and collge students because of the fact that you could go out there and enjoy the isolation. Some people who comment on websites remember the days that Boca Chica was the place to go for people from the Brownsville barrios.
"I was born and raised in Brownsville.," writes one. " We grew up going to Boca Chica Beach every weekend in the summer and sometimes even during the week. With daylight savings time, you could enjoy the beach till 8PM. Never went to South Padre because we could not afford it. There used to be a fee for crossing the causeway. Sometimes we went to the mouth of the Rio Grande to do some fishing. That beach was gorgeous!
"The breeze wonderful and not to mention the good surf fishing! My best memories are when several families would meet and spend Sundays at the beach. Kids played in the sand and water, grownups fixed food and had their cold ones.
"What good times! When I got married my husband and I along with our families continued that tradition. We moved away from our hometown when both my husband and I were 28 yrs old. We still go back every few yrs to spend time at the beach. Besides our families, the beach is the one thing we always miss and remember. Some of the best memories of growing up was enjoying Boca Chica Beach."
A Birder wrote about the beach:
"Boca Chica is great, especially during the spring or summer. There's lots of birds, here's a list of the ones I saw when I went: Roseate Spoonbill, White Ibis, Harris' Hawk, American Osprey,
Curve-billed thrashers, Brown Pelican, Tern, Gannet, Peregrine Falcon, Surfbirds, Great Blue Heron, Little Blue Heron, Laughing Gull, Crested Caracara, Greater Gull, Franklin's Gull, Other small birds, and so much more..."
Trash on the beach, however, remains one of the bad things marring this otherwise pristine beach. Some commented that:
"Litter bugs me, there is a big heap of trash in the beach, said one. "Some people should clean it up. "
Another commenter said:
"This would be a beautiful place except for all the trash. Bring shoes because there is lots of broken glass. Since there are cars and alcohol allowed, be careful especially if you are walking on the beach as there is ocean mist that makes visibility difficult at times for drivers even if they have not been drinking."
Next Monday, our county reps will get the word from the feds on whether they can continue to provide this pristine beach for the enjoyment of the county's low-income residents or whether they get their way and prevent them from cleaning it for their enjoyment.