Big Apple port project raises green hackles

A US$350 million project that will nearly double the capacity of the New York Container Terminal (NYCT) in Mariners Harbour and create more than 300 full-time jobs has put the port on a collision course with environmentalists.

The project will require taking a slice of a contaminated but ecologically dynamic tidal wetland, angering environmentalists and pitting them against those who see the expansion as a needed economic shot in the arm, the Staten Island Advance reported.

About 60 people attended a public hearing on the project earlier in the week, which is a required part of the process to complete an environmental impact statement before the project can proceed.

Each year, the container terminal's three berths handle about 450,000 lifts, the addition of a fourth berth would raise the capacity to 800,000 lifts per year.

NYCT President and CEO Jim Devine estimates the project would take about three years for construction after the environmental impact statement process concludes next year, and he hopes the new berth will be open by 2014, timed for the widening of the Panama Canal, which will start bringing larger ships to call at local ports.

The project will affect just over 16 acres of wetlands, with about 12 to be filled in and just over four that would be dredged as part of the deepening of the new berth's channel to 50 feet.

The new berth would include a quarter-mile-long wharf with four cranes, a container handling and storage area, a three-story marine operations building, a one-story crane operations building and five one-story security booths. 
 
(Source: www.schednet.com)