Date Published: December 15, 2006   

Final impact statement on port issued

By BRUCE SMITH
Associated Press Writer

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers released a final environmental impact statement Friday on a proposed $545 million steamship terminal at the old Charleston Naval Base - a document so large it might take a steamship to carry.

The main report is 776 pages, but the appendices bring the size to a whopping 5,741 pages, including 1,026 pages of public comment collected since a draft was issued 14 months ago.

The State Ports Authority plans to spend $10 million on mitigation to offset impacts of building the terminal, including donating $1 million to help preserve Morris Island.

Morris Island was the site of the Confederate's Battery Wagner, where black troops from the 54th Massachusetts bled and died in a charge commemorated in the movie "Glory."

While the battery has been lost to erosion, much of the island remains. Officials of the Trust for Public Land have been working to raise $5 million to preserve the rest of the island.

The donation means the trust now needs only $750,000.

"This contribution by the State Ports Authority takes us much closer to our goal," said Slade Gleaton, the trust's South Carolina director.

"We believe the support of this worthy campaign is simply the right thing to do for this community and for this project," said Bernard Groseclose, the authority's president and chief executive officer.

The public will have a month to comment on the impact statement with the corps expected to make a final decision on a permit for the 286-acre terminal sometime this spring.

The authority learned earlier this year concerns about increased steamship traffic hitting endangered right whales would not delay the project.

The National Marine Fisheries Service found the terminal would only incrementally increase ship traffic and only slightly increase the risk of collision.

The terminal will have three berths with more than a half-mile length of dock space capable of docking newer, larger post-Panamax vessels - vessels too wide to pass through the Panama Canal.

The terminal will require dredging 6.5 million cubic yards of material from the Cooper River and have an access road from Interstate 26 more than a mile long. It will generate an additional 7,700 vehicle trips a day, more than half of them trucks.

The State Ports Authority has already received a needed water quality permit from the state Department of Health and Environmental Control.

U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., welcomed the completion of the report. He said it brought the project "one step closer to reality."

"The expansion at the Charleston Naval Complex will ensure that the Port of Charleston remains one of the busiest ports on the East Coast," he said.

The agency has been trying for years to get a new terminal built because of its pressing need for more space.

It went through a similar review in the late 1990s when the Naval Base was considered as an alternative to the State Ports Authority's proposed Global Gateway Terminal on Daniel Island.

Fierce opposition prompted the agency to abandon the Daniel Island site, and state lawmakers directed the authority to build on the old base.