Sanford asks corps to expedite port study

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. - The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is again gauging the impact of a steamship terminal in South Carolina, and Gov. Mark Sanford has asked the agency to expedite the process.

The corps is starting to prepare an environmental impact statement on a proposed $500 million State Ports Authority terminal at the old Charleston Naval Base, the second time in five years the agency has conducted such a study.

Fierce opposition in the late 1990s prompted the authority to scuttle plans to build its larger Global Gateway terminal Daniel Island. State lawmakers then directed the authority to consider the old base.

The current plan calls for a 250-acre container terminal with more than a half-mile of berths. The State Ports Authority is looking for private steamship companies to help pay the cost.

Lt. Col. Alvin Lee, commander of the Charleston District of the Corps of Engineers, said Tuesday a draft impact statement could be published in July of next year with a permit decision by December, 2005.

Sanford, in a letter to the corps, said many aspects of the terminal have already been reviewed and the community and the state have considered all options available.

"We would encourage your investigation to focus on the local neighborhoods, environment impacted by the project and any mitigation necessary," Sanford wrote.

"We urge you to set the scope of this EIS to recognize the significant work that has already been done and the continued partnerships we have already developed with the community," the letter said.

Several state lawmakers, including State Sen. Arthur Ravenel, R-Mount Pleasant, a strong opponent of the Daniel Island site, have also written asking the permitting process be expedited.

"The timeline is a major concern to us," said Bernard Groseclose, the president and chief executive officer of the State Ports Authority.

"We feel we have gone through an EIS process for a much larger terminal which involved significant public and political input. There was a lot of direction given us in the legislative process that led us to the site we're looking at today," he added.

Groseclose said there was also a redevelopment study a decade ago when the base closed and the site was originally proposed for a terminal.

"We feel we're returning to a similar but much smaller project with fewer impacts. With the time we lost with the previous EIS we are interested in expediting the process," he said.

Groseclose said that in other places, permits for similar size projects with similar impacts have taken a year or less.

Lee said it's possible the process could be completed earlier than proposed, depending on what specific issues need to be addressed.

But, he added, "the needs for this project are different than the Global Gateway project. You cannot necessarily extrapolate what was in the Daniel Island draft EIS and automatically assume you can use that in this process."

If a permit is issued, the State Ports Authority says it could take five years to build the terminal.

In the fall of 2002, North Charleston and the authority signed an agreement on how to divide land at the base.

The northern section went to the city for its ambitious $1 billion Noisette urban renewal project. The Ports Authority got the southern end.

Under a 16-page memorandum of understanding, the state will build a direct link from Interstate 26 to the terminal and three rail overpasses so traffic isn't slowed by trucks going to the terminal.