Businesses call for Charleston deepening

Businesses call for Charleston deepening    A group of five prominent South Carolina businessmen are calling for deepening of the Port of Charleston.
   Writing in the Sunday edition of Charleston’s Post and Courier newspaper, they expressed support for efforts by U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham and other members of the South Carolina congressional delegation to secure $400,000 for the initial feasibility study to deepen the harbor.
   “This project will eventually cost $300 million — a large sum — but less expensive than other East Coast competitors,” they say.
   “We unequivocally support these efforts. If our state’s political leadership has the vision and courage to act decisively, South Carolina will be poised for sustained growth.
   “Failing to act and squandering this opportunity, however, will suffocate South Carolina’s economy for generations.”
   The five businessmen, who say their companies collectively employ 25,000 in the state, are:
   ' Tim Coyle, vice president and general manager of Boeing South Carolina.
   ' Harris DeLoach Jr., president and chief executive officer of Sonoco.
   ' Robert M. Hitt III, department manager of corporate affairs of BMW Manufacturing.
   ' Joseph M. Salley, president and CEO of Millken & Co.
   ' Richard A. Wilkerson, chairman and president of Michelin North America.
   Reports say lack of support for a $400,000 earmark for the study by South Carolina’s other Senator, Jim DeMint, resulted in the Charleston study not being included in the 2010 Energy and Water Appropriations bill.

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   Mark Heath, a member of DeMint’s staff, said the senator has not specifically opposed the deepening study, but is against earmarks generally.
   Last week DeMint said he would seek a change in internal GOP rules to bar any Republican from seeking earmarks.
   On Sept. 19, in an Op-Ed for the Post and Courier, DeMint wrote he was “developing legislation to fundamentally reform the way the Army Corps elects projects and the way port dredging is funded. It’s time to get Washington out of the way and take politics out of the process.”
   Heath said legislation has not been introduced.
   “The Corps has a backlog of over 1,000 earmarked projects totaling almost $80 billion. No one knows what its priorities are or what earmarks it’s supposed to fund next. Without fundamental and comprehensive reform, critical projects like the Port of Charleston deepening may never see the light of day,” DeMint wrote.
   He said his bill would “bring transparency and accountability to the Corps of Engineers” by:
   ' Requiring annual reports on their current backlog of projects.
   ' De-authorizing wasteful projects that have never seen funding.
   ' Establishing an independent non-partisan Water Resources Commission to “sort out the wheat from the chaff and prioritize the projects that are real national priorities, and eliminate those that are just the pet projects of powerful lawmakers.”
   ' Empower the Corps of Engineers to fund projects according to the commission’s merit-based criteria, “instead of forcing the Corps to be driven by political earmarks.”
   He also said states would be able to “get back every dollar collected at their ports” through the national Harbor Maintenance Tax.
   One source who saw a draft of DeMint’s bill said it would allow funds from the Harbor Maintenance Fund to be used for both maintenance and new construction, so that the funds could be used to finance the $400,000 study.
   In June Rep. Linda Sanchez, D-Calif., introduced the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund Improvement Act of 2010 (H.R. 5621) that would amend the Water Resources Development Act of 1986 to authorize funds in the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund to be used to pay up to 100 percent of the eligible costs of preparing federal environmental impact statements for certain navigation projects, and for other purposes in addition to maintenance dredging.
   According to Sanchez, federal taxes are collected to pay for maintenance dredging, yet only about half of what is collected is being spent for its intended purpose. As a result, Sanchez said the fund has accumulated a large surplus, and her bill would give ports more options to use the surplus of funds.
   Sanchez cited a 2008 report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office that found the Harbor Maintenance Tax generates more than $1.5 billion annually but that only about $900 million is being spent.
   Sunday’s Post and Courier also featured an commentary from John Cameron, former Coast Guard sector commander for South Carolina and Georgia, who said Congress should fund a study of deepening the Charleston harbor consider a system of deep “first” ports in the Northeast, mid-Atlantic and Southeast, and a series of shallower “second” ports in between.
   “Ships tend to be at their maximum depth only when they arrive at the first U.S. port on their route, and then again leaving their last U.S. port on their way back overseas. At all the ports in between, they’re typically a few feet lighter because they’re not fully loaded,” Cameron explained.
   Charleston has the deepest and widest channels in the Southeast, he said, arguing, “deepening Charleston will cost less than half of any other Southeast port to handle the mega ships coming through the new Panama Canal.” ' Chris Dupin