Baker Institute fellow Joan Neuhaus Schaan, right, talks with U.S. Rep. Tom McClintock, R-California, the ranking Republican on the Subcommittee on Water and Power, following her June 17, 2010, testimony.
Joan Neuhaus Schaan, the Baker Institute’s fellow in Homeland Security and Terrorism, testified in front of Congress last week on the issue of terrorism and water infrastructure.
At a legislative hearing before the House Subcommittee on Water and Power, Neuhaus Schaan discussed the need to include security officials in a proposal for a southwest water task force. She cited reported threats against the Falcon Dam and Falcon Reservoir, both located on the Rio Grande between Reynosa and Nuevo Laredo, as examples.
“An attack on the water system might be perpetrated to pressure the Mexican government … or it might be perpetrated to interfere with a rival’s smuggling route, since most dams include a crossing point,” she testified. “Alternatively, an individual anonymous tip may be simply a hoax to preoccupy authorities while a contraband shipment occurs elsewhere.”
Neuhaus Schaan’s testimony came the same day that BP chief executive Tony Hayward testified about his firm’s role in the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion. So Neuhaus Schaan knows that many of the people at the Longworth House Office Building where the hearing was held may not have been there to see her.
“Still, this was definitely a successful trip. The very fact I was invited and the fact that the national media picked up this, means that there is a real thirst for more knowledge about what’s truly going on along the border,” she said.