PrintPrintBy Molly Parker
Published July 20, 2009
The Southern Environmental Law Center filed a motion today asking a federal judge to halt construction of the S.C. State Ports Authority's terminal in North Charleston.
SPA interim CEO John Hassell said the motion, "while not unexpected, is unfortunate."
The law center, along with the S.C. Coastal Conservation League, says the construction project should wait for additional traffic studies to determine whether Interstate 26 can handle the truck traffic that a new terminal would generate, and to study rail options that could help prevent interstate gridlock.
The motion is part of a lawsuit pending in federal court in which the law center sued the Army Corps of Engineers claiming the permitting agency erred in approving the North Charleston terminal because it failed to appropriately consider the impact of trucks on I-26.
The motion for temporary injunction asks a judge to require the SPA to stop work on the terminal until these outstanding issues are resolved. The motion says that the harm is minimal to the SPA because the decline in world trade has left the Port of Charleston with plenty of excess capacity. SPA officials have stated repeatedly and with vigor that it is vital that the new terminal be open by around 2014, the year the Panama Canal expansion should be completed.
The Port of Charleston's competitive advantage in the Southeast is that it boasts deeper waters that can handle the larger so-called post-Panamax ships. But the recession has slowed growth projections dramatically, and how global trade will shake out in the next decade is a big question mark.
Because of that, Nancy Vinson, water and air program director for the Coastal Conservation League, said the SPA would be wise to give its new leadership team time to evaluate its options with regard to the new terminal. Hapag-Lloyd executive Jim Newsome takes over as CEO of the agency on Sept. 1.
"This global economic decline has really offered us the opportunity to get it right on the port," Vinson said. "Clearly we have time to get it right. This is such a huge investment of public dollars, we shouldn't go with the plan that was designed hastily by former leadership."
Despite the pending lawsuit, the SPA issued a $55 million contract in April for construction of a 5,000-foot-long containment wall into Charleston Harbor. The winning bid for the project - which is expected to span about 15 months - is from a joint venture between Cape Romain Contractors of Wando and Massachusetts-based Jay Cashman Inc.
That contract includes language to deal with a court-ordered stop to the project, though this morning Hassell defended the SPA's position that now is the time to build.
"The ports authority will continue to aggressively defend its permit and the project, which is critical to the long-term economic competitiveness of the region and the state," he said.
In the most recent legislative session, leading lawmakers attempted to orchestrate a plan that would have provided on-dock or near-dock rail access to the new terminal. Debate got heated as lawmakers attempted to transfer to the state the ownership of a rail line on the northern end of the former Navy base running through property owned by the Noisette Co. North Charleston Mayor Keith Summey vowed to fight that plan.
The SPA was silent on the debate, saying state decree ordered the authority to deal with the terminal and other agencies - the Department of Transportation and S.C. Public Railways - to determine road and rail plans.
In a statement issued Monday responding to the motion, the SPA noted that South Carolina's June unemployment was 12.1%, the nation's fourth-highest.
"At a time when jobs are critical to the Charleston area and the entire state, the only people trying to stop the creation of good jobs and economic opportunity are the (Coastal Conservation) League and the SELC," Hassell said.
The Charleston Metro Chamber of Commerce's Center for Business Research estimates that the latest project will support an estimated 720 jobs while creating a $78.4 million economic impact in the local area, the SPA said. Test piles were driven last month.
Reach Molly Parker at 843-849-3144.
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