The $1.8 million contract to Applied Technology & Management sets in motion a bureaucratic process in which Lowcountry residents and port watchdog and environmental groups will help guide state and federal regulatory agencies as they weigh the proposed terminal's likely impacts to the environment.

It was during a similar stage of the SPA's now-defunct plans to build the Global Gateway container terminal on Daniel Island that a firestorm of public opposition began to brew.

After the SPA spent three years and $3 million pursuing expansion on Daniel Island, the General Assembly stepped in and redirected expansion plans to the base.

The SPA is now studying how to dispose of all or parts of its 1,300 acres on Daniel Island to help pay for the proposed base terminal.So far, the terminal has political support. Gov. Mark Sanford, the General Assembly, North Charleston Mayor Keith Summey and members of the state's congressional delegation all have asked for an expedited permitting process.

But the port should have no illusions of easy sailing for its new plan simply because it's somewhere other than Daniel Island, said Megan Terebus, land use associate with the S.C. Coastal Conservation League.

The league and port watchdog groups such as Contain the Port played large roles in organizing public opposition to the Daniel Island plan, which included a volatile proposal to run a rail spur through the Cainhoy community in Berkeley County.

The Conservation League already has concerns about what port officials described this week as a phased approach to terminal expansion. The SPA has said it could someday build as many as five shipping berths at the base, but its application for environmental permits deals only with three.

Even then, the SPA has said it may want to build only one or two berths initially and add others later as container capacity grows to justify them.

Terebus said the league intends to ask the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the lead permitting agency for the project, to study potential impacts of a five-berth terminal.

"The implications are humongous for the surrounding area," Terebus said. "We want the cumulative impact to be known."

Frank Heindel of Contain the Port said his Mount Pleasant-based group is wary because of the SPA's heavy-handed tactics during the Daniel Island issue.

"Our major concern is that the same management team that brought us the Global Gateway train wreck ... is in charge of this venture," Heindel said. "We hope the SPA has learned from past mistakes and doesn't ignore the Lowcountry's input this time around."

With the contract awarded, the corps will begin scheduling public meetings where it will ask for help in deciding the study's focus areas.

The entire public input and study process will take up to two years, after which time the corps will decide whether to issue a permit. Construction of the terminal could take up to five years, SPA President and CEO Bernard Groseclose Jr. said.

Terebus said her group wants to see a thorough review of the terminal's potential affects on aquatic habitats and area roads and rail lines.

SPA officials said they already have begun meeting with local and state highway officials to begin planning the terminal's infrastructure requirements.

Tuesday's contract award also was symbolic of a change under way at the SPA since Sanford took office this year and began installing his own political appointees on the nine-member board.

When the proposed contract was first brought to the board in June, some newly appointed Sanford appointees balked at the $2.5 million price tag and the absence of competing bid amounts.

Working with corps officials, port staff went back to the drawing board and returned with the $1.8 million environmental study. They also tacked on a $60,000 contract for Davis and Floyd Engineering to act as the SPA's on-site representative and review all of the main contractor's billing.

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