TUCSON - A public forum here Tuesday revealed little about the specifics of a plan to construct a new high-tech security system along 262 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona.

The forum also limited public comment on the effort, known as SBInet, to feedback on the potential environmental impact of the project, and asked citizens to voice their concerns not in front of an open microphone, but via written statement or one-on-one comments to court reporters.

That left some border residents feeling frustrated and excluded.

"I thought they were going to have to listen to us, but they're not - our comments are just going to go into a file somewhere," said Naco resident Emilie Vardaman, who came to the meeting to voice her displeasure with the plan. "I drove 100 miles to express my concerns and they're not even going to be looked at. Basically, it's a done deal."

Still, despite the limited nature of the meeting, Sean Sullivan of the Sierra Club's Tucson-based Rincon Group was encouraged that U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the Border Patrol were at least following the rules of the National Environmental Policy Act by holding the meeting.

"This is the first time that any type of public scoping meeting has happened (with a Border Patrol-related project), and that's heartening," Sullivan said. "But there's still not enough information provided at this meeting in order for people to make meaningful comments."

The information that was provided to the approximately 50 attendees came via a 15-minute PowerPoint presentation from Paula Miller, environmental planner for the SBInet program.

Miller talked about "installing and upgrading technology solutions," such as communications towers up to 98 feet high, ground sensors and light towers that would support the Border Patrol in its mission to further secure the border - an effort that has been dubbed the "virtual fence."

Miller said the program would be implemented along a 262-mile-long corridor that runs the lengths of Pima, Santa Cruz and Cochise counties and extends 25 miles inland from the border.

However, she added, before the building begins, SBInet planners will undertake an environmental assessment that includes input from the public.

"We'll take your comments, review them, and determine if they're applicable to the project," she said, adding that if relevant issues are brought to light that had not been previously considered, they will be adapted into the assessment.

Once the assessment is finished, it will be published in draft form, and the public will be given 30 days to view and comment on it, Miller said.

Jim Hawkins, a spokesman with the Border Patrol's Tucson Sector, said afterward that the specifics of the program, such as what will be built and where, also would be made available to the public.

"When we decide where we're going to place things and the type of infrastructure we're going to put in, we'll do public outreach and we'll seek public input," he said. "It's going to be a very transparent process."

Vardaman said she opposed the SBInet program - especially its massive camera towers - out of concern for the towers' unsightliness, skepticism of the effectiveness of the program, and anxiety about being spied on.

"The towers are going to damage the environment, but not as much as they are going to damage my life," she said.

Hawkins acknowledged that concerns about a potential "Big Brother" effect are common, but he said the Border Patrol would follow strict rules to protect citizens' privacy rights.

As for environmental concerns, Hawkins said some of the most common worries are that the light towers will frighten away wildlife or affect views of nighttime skies. Animals will get used to the lights, he insisted, and the Border Patrol is experimenting with various lighting alternatives to lessen the impact on stargazing.

Asked about Cochise County, where much of the land along the border is privately owned, Hawkins said the CBP and Border Patrol would try to work with land owners to find satisfactory locations for the SBInet infrastructure, with imminent domain employed only as a last resort.

"We really dislike using imminent domain, and any time we can avoid doing that, we will," he said.

The SBInet project, which was announced in 2005, was launched with a pilot program earlier this year to construct a series of towers and sensors along a 28-mile area around Sasabe.

The program, known as Project 28, has been hit by delays and is yet to become fully operational.

Boeing Co., the world's largest aerospace company, won a three-year, $67 million contract to build the first leg of the virtual fence, including Project 28. When finished, the project is expected to cover 6,000 miles of U.S. borderlands with Mexico and Canada and cost of billions of dollars.

Jennifer Allen, director of the Tucson-based organization Border Action Network, is concerned that the federal government is turning over more and more of its responsibilities along the border to private companies that are motivated by profit rather than public security interests.

"The big questions become accountability and oversight, and who is ultimately going to be responsible for the actions of these folks on the ground," Allen said.