Officials at Lowcountry maritime facilities, including the Port of Charleston, deserve praise for meeting Wednesday's deadline to submit security plans outlining defenses against terrorism. Unfortunately, such praise is not due officials at most such facilities. More than three-quarters of U.S. ports, ferry terminals and fuel-chemical plants and nearly half of ships failed to meet that deadline.
Those who have missed the deadline should follow the lead set by the State Ports Authority and others, including private entities, in our state. As Jim Mahney, who is overseeing the port's anti-terror plans for the U.S. Coast Guard here, told The Post and Courier: "We've had a really good response."
That response included the submission of those plans to the Coast Guard headquarters in Washington, D.C. U.S. Coast Guard Cmdr. Gary Merrick, captain of the Port of Charleston, noted that the approval of those plans, along with a final list of terminals and vessels in compliance, might not be sent back to Charleston for several weeks.
The pressing need to have a well-coordinated port-security strategy is plain in an era when terrorists seek targets on the U.S. mainland. So is the local focus on this situation in Charleston, the nation's fourth-busiest container port.
Making our ports more secure won't be easy -- or cheap. The president and Congress should move forward to fully fund the mandates of the 2002 Maritime Transportation Security Act written by South Carolina's Sen. Ernest F. Hollings. No time should be wasted in submitting and implementing effective plans to counter the terror threats to all U.S. ports.
A failure to do so risks harrowing consequences. The overwhelming majority of goods that come into America each year arrive in shipping containers at our ports. Only a small percentage of those containers are inspected.
Imagining that the forces of terror don't realize this would be irresponsible, wishful thinking. The sooner we minimize the continuing vulnerability of our nation's ports, including Charleston, the better.
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