Savannah Commission Declares DHEC Permit Invalid

In a unanimous vote the commission created by legislature declares the water-quality permit for the port as improperly issued and illegal.

The turn down of the permit comes just days after the South Carolina state Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) board granted a water-quality permit for the Port of Savannah.

Members of the maritime commission say that the DHEC board overstepped in their issuing of the permit.  In September DHEC denied the clean-water permit that was needed by the Army Corps of Engineers to begin work on deepening the Savannah River channel to allow larger ships to passage to Port of Savannah.

Before issuing the permit last week, DHEC staff worked out a deal with the Georgia Port Authority and the Army Corps of Engineers to satisfy all environmental concerns. The port and corps agreed to install and maintain devices that would keep oxygen at a healthy level in the river and they agreed to preserve 1,500 acres of salt water marsh in South Carolina to offset the same amount of marsh lands that will be destroyed during the expansion. When all concerns were satisfied DHEC issued the permit.

The Maritime Commission says they were left out of the negotiations and that there was no public discussion of the agreements made between the Georgia Port Authority, DHEC and the Army Corps of Engineers.

Members of the maritime commission, put together to represent South Carolina, is calling for a resignation by the DHEC staff who worked out this deal – saying they sold out their own state in favor of Georgia.

Protestors of the Savannah port expansion project say that the changes will damage the environment and others feel the port will undercut the local economy.

Senator Tom Davis (R – Beaufort) released the following statement regarding DHEC’s decision:

Today’s decision by the Savannah River Maritime Commission (the “Maritime Commission”) to challenge last week’s decision by the board of directors of the Department of Health and Environmental Control (the “DHEC Board”) to green-light the Georgia Ports Authority’s dredging of 38 miles of the Savannah River Harbor (commonly known as the Savannah Harbor Expansion Project, or “SHEP”) is an important step in protecting the State of South Carolina’s economic and environmental interests.

The Maritime Commission has consistently and correctly taken a strong position in favor of developing the Jasper County port site. It is on the Savannah River channel, too, but 14 miles closer to the ocean than the Georgia Ports Authority’s terminal at Garden City. Building a new marine terminal in Jasper County to handle the Post-Panamax class of ships makes more sense – in terms of lower development costs, better competitiveness and less adverse environmental impact – than dredging further upriver to Garden City. Private maritime companies are ready, willing and able to invest hundreds of millions of dollars of their cash to make the new terminal in Jasper County a reality, and to create thousands of new high-paying jobs for the Lowcountry.

Neither the Georgia Ports Authority nor the United States Army Corps of Engineers (the “Corps”), however, have any interest in a maritime terminal being built in Jasper County. They say otherwise, but actions speak louder than words. For example, Congress ordered the Corps in 2007 to take steps to “remove from the proposed Jasper County port site the easements used by the Corps of Engineers for placement of dredged fill materials for the Savannah Harbor Federal navigation project.” Over four years later, however, the Corps has not only failed to remove that easement, it has actually proposed that SHEP dredge spoil be put on the Jasper County port site until the year 2050.

That sort of behavior will not change without pressure, and that’s exactly what the Maritime Commission has been applying. The Maritime Commission, using scientific data provided by expert witnesses, has made a strong case against SHEP. Through hard work, the Maritime Commission had created leverage to negotiate a fair deal on South Carolina’s behalf, one that included the Corps’ discharge of its duty to release its spoil easement from the Jasper County port site, alteration of dredge plans to maximize the value of the Jasper County port site, and minimizing the environmental risks. The action taken by the DHEC board last week, without even consulting the Maritime Commission, puts that hard-earned leverage at risk.

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MarEx does not necessarily endorse any opinions herein.