Ocelots have not been seen in the Port of Brownsville since the 1990s, but a new report says that three liquefied natural gas export terminals proposed along the deep South Texas waterway would permanently cut off a wildlife corridor considered critical for the survival of the endangered cat.
The corridor, running between Texas and Mexico, has taken decades and more than $90 million dollars to develop. In a 31-page report issued Tuesday, Defenders of Wildlife, an advocacy group in Washington, estimated there are fewer than 60 ocelots left in Texas. Already split into two separate populations in Willacy and Cameron counties, the report warned that combined traffic, light and noise that would accompany the LNG plants — if they are approved and constructed — would fragment ocelot habitat beyond repair.
“The impacts of these plants would be so devastating to the future recovery of the ocelot that they should not be built there at all,” said Robert Peters, a Defenders of Wildlife biologist who co-wrote the report. “It’s just a terrible place to put an industrial development like this. It’s probably the worst place available in terms of cutting the connectivity to Mexico.”
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A surplus of natural gas from U.S. shale basins is fueling a boom in projects to export LNG to customers in Europe, Asia and Latin America where prices are higher. NextDecade and Texas LNG, both of Houston, and Exelon of Chicago, are seeking permission from federal regulators to build LNG terminals along the western end of the Brownsville Ship Channel. If approved, the three plants would potentially bring $38.75 billion of private investment, thousands of construction jobs and hundreds of permanent jobs to the impoverished border region.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is not expected to decide on approving the projects until late June and mid-July. Environmental reports for Texas LNG and Exelon gave the green light for the projects to advance in the permitting process, but regulators expressed concerns that the cumulative effects of the export terminals and other industrial projects could threaten the ocelot, another endangered wild cat called the jaguarundi and the aplomado falcon.
The three projects together would have "permanent and significant" impacts on the movements of the ocelot and jaguarundi between the United States and Mexico as well as a "significant" impact on the aplomado falcon, FERC officials wrote.
The last documented sighting on an ocelot on Port of Brownsville property was during the 1990s on the same site Exelon is seeking to build on. Using radio tracking, Peters said biologists determined that the ocelot swam across the ship channel to the area where NextDecade plans to build its plant.
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Over the past few decades, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife service has spent $90.4 million to buy nearly 158,000 acres of land in the Rio Grande Valley to develop a cross-border wildlife corridor. The agency’s 2016 ocelot recovery plan further estimates that it could take up to 100 years and another $343 million in projects to remove the ocelot from the endangered species list.
Adding to those efforts, the Texas Department of Transportation has spent millions to build a systems of fences and underpasses along three highways in Cameron County to funnel ocelots into safe crossing corridors. Looking at other options, Peters said transplanting a genetically viable population of 75 ocelots north of the Rio Grande Valley could require up to $1 billion to buy 120,000 acres of suitable habitat.
But not everybody agrees with the approach of buying land to create a wildlife corridor. In a report released earlier this month, Mike Tewes, an ocelot expert with the Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute at Texas A&M University-Kingsville, called creating a wildlife corridor an “ecological fairy tale.”
Tewes favors improving habitat for the ocelot in areas where it is already found and relocating some of the animals to private ranches where landowners are willing to receive and protect them.
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Exelon officials declined to comment on the Defenders of Wildlife report, but previously announced that the company would move its proposed Annova LNG export terminal at the Port of Brownsville further east and establish a 185-acre wildlife corridor for the ocelot. In addition to helping develop 390 acres of ocelot habitat, the company donated $40,000 to the Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute in December 2015 that helped Tewes and others study the rare cat.
Officials with Texas LNG did not respond to requests for comment. NextDecade said it remains committed to building and operating its facilities that meet or exceed environmental standards and regulations. Among other pledges, NextDecade has agreed to use noise and pollution-reducing electric motors at its proposed Rio Grande LNG export terminal, which is expected to receive its final environmental impact statement Friday.
“NextDecade has been working with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission - in conjunction with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and other relevant agencies - to ensure that potential impacts to various listed species are mitigated,” the company said in a statement.
Apart from Defenders of Wildlife, the three projects face stiff opposition from a coalition of shrimpers, fishermen, environmentalists, neighbors and communities working under the banner Save RGV From LNG.
Federal regulators granted the group “motion to intervene” status against Texas LNG and Annova LNG. Under federal law, individuals and organizations with that status have the right to request rehearings of FERC orders and can file legal challenges to the permits in the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.