Federal applications filed to permit port in Jasper County
The first federal permit application for the planned mega-port in Jasper County was filed with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Charleston District on Tuesday.
The filing makes the long-anticipated, $4.5 billion Jasper Ocean Terminal an eventuality, not just a dream, port officials said last week.
"It's no longer a concept. It's now becoming a reality," said state Sen. Tom Davis, R-Beaufort, who has worked on the port since he was chief of staff for then-Gov. Mark Sanford. "Now you can break some eggs and make an omelet."
"The clock starts ticking when we submit this first letter to the Corps of Engineers in Charleston," added David Posek, chairman of the Joint Project Office that is overseeing the port's development. "Legally we have now asked the federal government that we want to build this facility. It's a reality in that sense. I'm excited, too."
The permit filed with the Charleston District will address the construction of the port facility on 1,500 acres at the southern end of Jasper County on the Savannah River, Posek said.
A second permit application, to be filed next week with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Savannah District, will address any channel modifications to the river's waterways needed to support the mega-ships that will use the port, Davis and Posek said.
The entire permitting process is expected to take more than five years. Construction of the $2.5 billion first phase of the facility is expected to be completed in 2028.
Earlier this month, leaders from the port's Joint Project Office and the South Carolina and Georgia ports authorities agreed to submit the applications and signed a new joint venture agreement to build the terminal.
The new agreement spells out the capacity, access and permitting of the port. It also addresses its eventual operation and updates the original, bi-state intergovernmental agreement signed by Sanford and then-Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue in 2008.
Some of the most politically charged and philosophically challenging aspects of the eventual terminal -- its financing, management and how both states will share the costs -- must still be considered, Posek and Davis noted.
"We have got to come up with an operational plan as well as a build plan," Posek noted. "That will be part of the agreement, but that doesn't have to be completed until we get closer to the actual permits coming down."
The most immediate needs will be the initial infrastructure costs for building rail access for Norfolk Southern and CSX railway companies and expanding U.S. 17 in the area, Davis said. Those should be in place by the time construction begins, but how Georgia and South Carolina should share the costs has not been addressed, he added.
Ahead of those discussions, though, the new agreement and permit applications mark a critical midpoint for the terminal project that promises to transform one of the poorest counties in the state, Davis said.
The plan already has overcome years of contentious legal and political fights, so to have both states and their respective ports authorities invested in the project is its own victory, Davis said.
"What's a real game-changer here is that both ports authorities now understand they're within major metropolitan areas and geographic constraints," Davis said. "I think both states now see the Jasper port as an attractive prospect and are finally working together toward it."
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Related content:
- Game-changing Jasper port finally has a timeline, Aug. 16, 2015
- Construction phase begins on Savannah Harbor expansion, Jan. 30, 2015
- Sustaining veto allows Jasper port to dodge legislative bullet, July 27, 2012
- Davis, Wilson tout Jasper County port alongside Charleston and Savannah, June 4, 2012
This story was originally published November 28, 2015 at 5:59 PM with the headline "Federal applications filed to permit port in Jasper County."