{"id":3720,"date":"2012-09-16T23:14:17","date_gmt":"2012-09-17T03:14:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/?p=3720"},"modified":"2012-09-16T23:14:17","modified_gmt":"2012-09-17T03:14:17","slug":"south-carolina-ports-authority-head-talks-about-savannah-river-dredging-and-proposed-jasper-port","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/2012\/09\/16\/south-carolina-ports-authority-head-talks-about-savannah-river-dredging-and-proposed-jasper-port\/","title":{"rendered":"South Carolina Ports Authority head talks about Savannah River dredging and proposed Jasper port"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"e26b170012445c56d240655bdd03f7bf\" data-index=\"1\" style=\"float: left; margin: 10px 10px 10px 0;\">\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"><!--\r\ngoogle_ad_client = \"ca-pub-5595881567027133\";\r\n\/* Medium Rectangle *\/\r\ngoogle_ad_slot = \"8584504377\";\r\ngoogle_ad_width = 300;\r\ngoogle_ad_height = 250;\r\n\/\/-->\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"\r\nsrc=\"http:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/show_ads.js\">\r\n<\/script>\n<\/div>\n<p>I&#8217;m not going to try to fill in all the background required for a full understanding of this post, so feel free to send a few questions my way about some of the points in this interesting interview in the Aiken Standard with South Carolina State Ports Authority head Jim Newsome: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aikenstandard.com\/story\/091612-S-C--Ports-Authority-s-Newsome-reflects-on-three-years-as-CEO-and-the-path-ahead-WEB\" target=\"_blank\">S.C. Ports Authority&#8217;s Newsome reflects on three years as CEO and the path ahead<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>I don&#8217;t know if this counts as a &#8220;candid&#8221; interview, as Newsome clearly tries to walk some tricky political tightropes here.<\/p>\n<p>Still, Savannah readers might want to read the entire lengthy interview, which touches upon cruise ships, dredging, new landside port capacity, the future of shipping, and on and on.<\/p>\n<p>An excerpt about the opposition in South Carolina to dredging the Savannah Harbor Expansion Project (SHEP):<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\nQ: Harbor deepening is a top priority for Charleston, and other ports as well. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen state and federal support ramp up quickly, since we started talking about it (two years ago). We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve also seen extensive efforts here in South Carolina to block Savannah\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s deepening project. Does Charleston\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s commercial success depend on keeping Savannah from getting a deeper shipping channel?<\/p>\n<p>A: The focus on Savannah\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s deepening, in my judgment, is environmental in nature. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t see it as an effort to protect Charleston. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not my take on it.<\/p>\n<p>If, in a $650 million project (the cost of the Savannah River deepening project), $310 million is environmental mitigation, then there are environmental issues. One has to ask the question, have they been properly dealt with? That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not an area for me to focus on. The Savannah River Maritime Commission was established to look at that.<\/p>\n<p>There is no doubt that the deployment of large container ships is one of the megatrends of the future in container shipping. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll have a &#8230; (a ship that can carry the equivalent of 14,000 20-foot containers) in this harbor in the next two years. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m sure of that.<\/p>\n<p>Harbor capability will be a defining capability for regional ports in the near future. Inland costs define where cargo goes, but having a deep harbor is a critical differentiator for a port. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been a thesis central to our planning since I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been here.<\/p>\n<p>The whole state really just coalesced behind (Charleston\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s deepening) project. We really worked with purpose and persistence, and it came together.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/392460_10150685680329103_103600253_n.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"3721\" data-permalink=\"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/2012\/09\/16\/south-carolina-ports-authority-head-talks-about-savannah-river-dredging-and-proposed-jasper-port\/392460_10150685680329103_103600253_n\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/392460_10150685680329103_103600253_n-e1347851640949.jpeg?fit=400%2C265\" data-orig-size=\"400,265\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Maersk_Savannah_River_fog\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/392460_10150685680329103_103600253_n-e1347851640949.jpeg?fit=300%2C199\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/392460_10150685680329103_103600253_n-e1347851640949.jpeg?fit=400%2C265\" tabindex=\"0\" role=\"button\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/392460_10150685680329103_103600253_n-e1347851640949.jpeg?resize=400%2C265\" alt=\"\" title=\"Maersk_Savannah_River_fog\" width=\"400\" height=\"265\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-3721\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a>And here&#8217;s Newsome on the long-proposed but apparently-increasingly-unlikely Jasper Port:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\nQ: In the background, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s still the plan for Jasper (a massive bi-state container terminal planned on the Savannah River in Jasper County), which the SPA supports, but that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s all tied up in the Savannah River deepening, where do we put the dredging material, and all that business. Can South Carolina officials fairly take the position that Jasper only works with a 50-foot-deep Savannah River, but the river shouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be deepened to 47 feet for the Port of Savannah? It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the same river.<\/p>\n<p>A: There is a case to be made that the current (Port of Savannah) deepening could preclude a further deepening up to the Jasper terminal. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not saying that authoritatively, but I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m saying that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a concern.<\/p>\n<p>I think, from just the port business, why would we argue for a 50-foot harbor in Charleston if we didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think that was a necessary standard for the East Coast?<\/p>\n<p>We are not the only ones saying that. New York is authorized to 50 feet, Baltimore is authorized to 50 feet, Norfolk is authorized to 50 feet, Miami is authorized to 50 feet, the Panama Canal is at 50 feet or more. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not just a coincidental number.<\/p>\n<p>The name of the game is to remove the tidal restrictions.<\/p>\n<p>We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re talking about building the largest contiguous container terminal in North America (if Jasper is built). It seems logical to us to see what the outcome is of that (Port of Savannah) deepening, then discuss what it would take for the Jasper terminal.<\/p>\n<p>Our next investment is the Navy base. From there, we move on to the next increment of capacity, be it in Jasper or somewhere else. Neither port (in South Carolina or Georgia) has got a dime in their budget for the Jasper terminal. I look forward to working on it one day.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<div class=\"e26b170012445c56d240655bdd03f7bf\" data-index=\"2\" style=\"float: none; margin:0px 0 0px 0; text-align:center;\">\n<script async src=\"http:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script>\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:inline-block;width:300px;height:250px\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-5595881567027133\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"4374909701\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\n<\/div>\n\n<!--CusAds0-->\n<div style=\"font-size: 0px; height: 0px; line-height: 0px; margin: 0; padding: 0; clear: both;\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Check out this interesting interview in the Aiken Standard with South Carolina State Ports Authority head Jim Newsome: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aikenstandard.com\/story\/091612-S-C--Ports-Authority-s-Newsome-reflects-on-three-years-as-CEO-and-the-path-ahead-WEB\" target=\"_blank\">S.C. Ports Authority&#8217;s Newsome reflects on three years as CEO and the path ahead<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"more-link-p\"><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/2012\/09\/16\/south-carolina-ports-authority-head-talks-about-savannah-river-dredging-and-proposed-jasper-port\/\">Read more &rarr;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3721,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[85,97,353,26],"class_list":["post-3720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economics","tag-charleston","tag-dredging","tag-savannah-harbor-expansion-project","tag-savannah-river"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/392460_10150685680329103_103600253_n-e1347851640949.jpeg?fit=400%2C265","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1gN9R-Y0","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3720"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3720"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3720\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}