Georgia accuses South Carolina saboteurs of aborting Jasper Terminal

THE bi-state plan to build a new container terminal in Jasper County, on the South Carolina side of the Savannah River, has come unstuck as South Carolina State Ports Authority chairman Bill Stern bows out and his erstwhile Georgia partners cry foul.


Georgia officials said South Carolina was trying to scuttle plans to deepen Savannah's harbour and river to benefit its rival, but languishing Port of Charleston, reported the Atlanta Journal Constitution.


In a letter, Mr Stern told erstwhile project partner Georgia Ports Authority chairman Alec Poitevint: "I cannot in good conscience recommend that South Carolina continue to spend funds on this project." The letter was posted on the Charleston Post and Courier website.


"Until we have clarity on the [Savannah dredging] issues, we stand to flounder in the uncertainty, spending money and time in vain on plans that would likely have to receive repeated and substantial changes, or that might be completely thwarted, all at the expense of our respective states," he said.


The Jasper Ocean Terminal was to be jointly owned by South Carolina and Georgia, but planning has been stymied by the twisted knot of state lines and land ownership from the start in 2007.


More recently, Mr Stern said since the US Army Corps of Engineers Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Savannah Harbour Expansion Project last November produced "a number of unsettling issues have emerged that have serious potential impacts", according to American Shipper.


The Army Corps of Engineers released a dredging study concluding that the Savannah River could be dredged to 48 feet from its current 42 feet with minimal environmental impact, and at a cost of US$551 million.


But South Carolina's environmental agency moved to thwart the dredging by raising water quality objections and then South Carolina state senator Larry Grooms, chairman of the Review and Oversight Commission on the South Carolina State Ports Authority, called the study "unbalanced and unsound."


But Georgia Ports Authority board member Steve Green said objections are spurious and have little to do with the environment. "There are elements within South Carolina who believe if they could delay or prevent the deepening that would slow Savannah's continued growth and success, and that would make Charleston successful again."


South Carolina's Senator Grooms, the primary sponsor of his state senate's anti-dredging resolution, and who also chairs the transportation committee, acknowledged that thwarting Savannah for Charleston's benefit "may be the motivation of some".
(Source:http://www.schednet.com)