Port Expansions (SC, GA):
A Race to The Bottom
Regional impact of expanding ports must be considered
The ports of Savannah and Charleston are engaged in a "race to the bottom" to deepen their harbors and expand facilities to attract more containership traffic from around the world. These dredging and port-expansion projects are carried out by the local port authority and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
©Ron Sherman
A container ship travels on the Savannah River.
Due to strong political pressure from state and local interests and their congressional representatives, the Corps has approved these projects without analyzing either the regional environmental impacts or the effect each port expansion will have on the economic viability of the others.
In addition to Charleston and Savannah, eight other ports along the East Coast are making plans to grow. The Corps' own information shows that competition among harbors for subsidized expansions could lead to more port capacity than is needed. Yet the agency failed to examine the regional environmental and economic aspects of multiple dredging projects on the east coast before approving the Savannah and Charleston projects.
Representing coastal conservation organizations in South Carolina and Georgia, the Southern Environmental Law Center is advising the Corps to look at the big picture of port expansion, coordinate projects to work with each other rather than against each other, and consider all environmental impacts of the harbor expansions in the formulation of the draft environmental impact statements.
