By Martin Sinderman
Contributing Writer

A new round of federal funding will help the Port of Charleston stay ahead of the curve when it comes to security measures.

As part of nearly $142 million in grants under the fifth round of its Port Security Grant Program, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security awarded $5.2 million to the South Carolina State Ports Authority last month.

This grant, the largest received by the port to date, will be used to enhance gates, barriers, guard houses, lighting, video surveillance and vehicle-screening areas at the Wando Welch Terminal, said the SPA in an issued statement.

The SPA had originally requested $18.1 million in funding for this round of grants, said Byron Miller, SPA spokesman. During the first four rounds, the authority received $7.5 million, he said.

The city of North Charleston, meanwhile, will receive $612,685 through the DHS grant. According to a statement from the office of Rep. Henry Brown, R-S.C., the funds will be used to purchase a marine patrol vehicle and related equipment, including a remote-operated vehicle.

The grant program funds help grantees implement port security plans mandated by the Maritime Transportation Security Act of 2002—a part of the legislative legacy of former U.S. Sen. Ernest “Fritz” Hollings, said Fred White, vice president for Maritime Security for Centreville, Va.-based Unitech, a company that provides training and technology to support homeland security efforts.

Speaking from the firm’s Charleston office, White explained that port security encompasses a number of elements.

“Part of port security is concerned with being able to track containers and the ability to target suspect containers for search—to make sure that no ‘dirty bombs’ or other illicit materials are transported by terrorists through our ports,” White said.

Technologies now in the prototype stage, White noted, “will let us inspect containers at the point of departure and seal them electronically, enabling us to track them and determine if they are tampered with during transit.”

In addition to containers, small-boat attacks, such as the suicide bomb attack against the guided missile destroyer USS Cole in 2000, against ports are also the focus of security concerns. There are a number of technologies in various stages of development that deal with the physical security of port facilities themselves, White said. These include intruder detection systems such as “Video IQ” that continuously monitor the images generated by multiple video surveillance cameras, generating alarms when human movement is detected; and other types of video, radar, infrared radiation and other types of sensing systems.

Technology isn’t the sole answer to the problems terrorists can pose to a port, though.

“Intelligence is vital—whenever you create a technology, there is someone that will find a way to defeat it,” White said. In addition to technology, “You’ve got to have a robust intelligence capability because what we are looking for more and more are ways of detecting and deterring attacks, rather than just responding to them.”

Another initiative of former Sen. Hollings has made Charleston a “center of gravity” when it comes to the intelligence portion of port security. Project Seahawk is a comprehensive effort, kicked off by a $29.5 million grant secured by Hollings in 2004, to coordinate port security among the federal, state, local and private entities charged with defending the Port of Charleston.

With the U.S. Attorney’s office in South Carolina as the central coordinating point, Seahawk brings together agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Immigration and Naturalization Service, U.S. Customs Service, U.S. Coast Guard, South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, local law enforcement, the SPA and others under a unified, intelligence-sharing port security center.

The local private sector is also a cooperating player in port security. For example, Rhodia SA received a grant in previous PSGP rounds, according to White. In return, the specialty chemicals manufacturer sends its video-monitoring camera feeds into Project Seahawk’s command and control center.

Thanks to initiatives such as Project Seahawk, Charleston’s port is ahead of the curve, compared with others in the United States, when it comes to security, White said.

But, he added, “The Coast Guard has estimated that it will take between $10 billion and $15 billion to close the gaps in port security around the country, but the grants issued to date have only totaled in the $100s of millions. There is still a lot of serious work that needs to be done.”

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