Will port have economic impact on area?

After almost 20 years of local, state and federal work, a $450 million bi-state port on the South Carolina side of the Savannah River is about nine years away from seeing its first container ship dock.

The port's champions say it will boost the economy of Georgia and South Carolina and further position the area in the global shipping industry -- a field marked for rapid expansion due to the $5 billion widening of the Panama Canal expected by 2015.

How much it will boost the area's economy is a moving target. A market study that will show the economic impact is expected at the end of the month, said Bill Bethea Jr., the Joint Project Office vice chairman representing South Carolina. The office manages logistics for the port's development.

"I don't know (the economic impact). I know it's going to be big. Some of the numbers, too, are going to bounce around on us because we need to think in terms of building a port that's as modern as we can make it, and also in terms of transportation (such as railways and highways)," said Jim Balloun, chairman of the project office representing Georgia.

"It's going to take a lot of money, but the preliminary work we've done is that it will be a profitable investment for both states."

The Jasper Ocean Terminal, as the proposed port is called, will compete with other ports slated for expansion along the East Coast, such as Norfolk, Va.; Wilmington, N.C., and Jacksonville, Fla. The Jasper port is about 7 miles from the ocean and 15 miles downriver from the Port of Savannah, a deep-sea container port that is the fourth-largest in the U.S. It would be one of the first ports that ships encounter after the Panama Canal.

But to keep its momentum, the port requires, beyond economic impact perspectives, the continuation of a relatively recent sense of cooperation between the states. From 2006 to 2007, the two states were involved in litigation that made the hope of a port unlikely.

The divisiveness changed March 12, 2007, when Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue and South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford signed a document that defined port topics and would serve as the blueprint for moving forward, a paradigm shift that many involved credit to Tom Davis, a Beaufort lawyer, former Ports Authority board member and state Senate candidate who helped draft the document.

"I believe we all came to the conclusion a couple of years ago that there was more to be gained by collaboration. And, in fact, we will have a port in Jasper County in the future," said Jim Lientz, Perdue's chief operating officer. "Whereas if we continued to fight, the odds were pretty low to have a port there."

The decision to acquire 1,518 acres last week by Georgia and South Carolina ports authorities is merely the latest step toward the ultimate joint port. On July 14, the Georgia Port Authority unanimously decided to acquire the land along the Savannah River in Jasper County to be used as the port site. The property is owned by the Georgia Department of Transportation. On the following day, the S.C. State Ports Authority approved a similar acquisition

declaration.

"This is a project that really couldn't be built by South Carolina or Georgia, but together we can build something that's really spectacular," Balloun said.

MOVING FORWARD

The states signed an intergovernmental agreement Jan. 27.Then the project started moving forward along parallel tracks -- one administrative and the other legislative. Each is expected to take about three years.

The Joint Project Office, a six-member committee with three members from each state, will spearhead the administrative track. This fall it will focus on completing site-specific studies, such as engineering and economic impact studies, which will move the office into the "more definitive" permitting process by the beginning of the year, Bethea said.

How many jobs will be created, what the costs and environmental impacts will be and what will be done to address concerns will all be spelled out within 18 to 20 months after proposals are made to each state's legislature, Balloun said. "All these things have to take place in order to take this piece of dirt and take it to something upon which you can build a port. These steps are actively being done," saidDavis, who helped draft the intergovernmental agreement.

The legislative track's strategic goalis winning approval from the Georgia and South Carolina's general assemblies, as well as from Congress.

"The biggest legal issue in the whole (bi-state port project) and what drove the manner of the intergovernmental agreement is the fact that we're aiming at an interstate compact dealing with the legislatures of both state," said Robbie Poplin, the attorney representing the Joint Project Office. But Poplin said great care was exercised to make sure the legislative processes are conducted efficiently. When the Georgia and South Carolina legislatures review the port proposal submitted by the Joint Project Office, the office will continue with its tasks set out in the legislative agreement.

"It made more sense to have them (administrative and legislative agendas) run concurrently so then at the end of the day. If it takes two or three years to hammer out (the states' approval) and have it ratified by Congress ... you haven't slowed things down in the political process," Davis said. "You're there hopefully by the time the Panama Canal has the ribbon-cutting and the new ships start coming in."