 The tow boat Coos Bay helps a freighter move through Coos Bay and dock in the Bunker Hill area recently. With homeland security concerns, the U.S. Coast Guard is shifting from safety and rescue to national security. Port officials from around the Northwest have concerns about changing U.S. Coast Guard directives without providing adequate funding and resources that could compromise lifesaving missions. - World Photo by Lou Sennick |
By Andrew Sirocchi, Staff Writer
As Congress begins to draft legislation intended to make the nation's ports safer from terrorism, the Oregon International Port of Coos Bay is warning that changing U.S. Coast Guard directives without providing adequate funding and resources could compromise lifesaving missions.
"Search and rescue stations are very important in the Pacific Northwest," said Mike Gaul, the port's operations director.
Hazardous, choppy waters make Oregon's and Washington's seascape among the most dangerous in the world, Gaul said at a Senate Subcommittee on Surface Transportation and Merchant Marine hearing, held in Portland early this week. The subcommittee hearing, chaired by Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and attended by Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., has been charged with helping develop legislation to enhance port safety.
Gaul urged the group not to forget, as it develops strategies for protecting national security, that the Coast Guard's role in ensuring the safety of commercial and recreational boaters on the South Coast is imperative.
"Port security is one of the Coast Guard's missions but to go to the heightened alerts and do the things they have to do to make that their topmost priority they certainly have to, with their resources, have appropriate increases in personnel and resources," Gaul said.
Major port and security officials told Oregon's two senators on Tuesday that federal funding will be needed to make ports safer. Industry representatives also cautioned that any safety regulations should be crafted to avoid hindering trade.
"Many ports simply do not have the resources to comply with potential provision of a new federal law," Bob Hrdlicka, the marine director at the Port of Portland, stated in his written testimony. "Uniform federal funding is the surest way to secure maritime ports."
"In terms of port security legislation currently being considered by Congress, Nike would measure success in terms of implementing a process that sends relevant shipping information to U.S. Customs as the containers move toward the United States and in maintaining an effective in-bond program," stated Nike Director John Isbell in his written comments advocating for maintaining free and easy commerce.
Gaul agreed with both points.
"We have to have funding to go with any security that goes into place," Gaul said. "We want to maintain the level of service of commerce and trade and we certainly want to voice our concerns of any loss of the Coast Guard."
Gaul speaks from experience.
As a former master chief in the Coast Guard and manager of the Charleston Life Boat Station in the past, Gaul said he knows fatigue can set in and compromise the efficiency of operations when personnel are overworked.
"I just think that the threat is there," Gaul said; "that the priority may be national security and there may be a time when there's a search and rescue call that the Coast Guard may not be able to answer because of their primary mission."
The port representative said he is talking about future concerns and doesn't have any current worries.
"That's the reason for our comments," he said. "We wanted to alert the Coast Guard and alert the Senate Committee that they need to take these things into consideration."
Gaul presented the subcommittee with three concerns from the Port of Coos Bay, including:
-- committing to full federal funding for all security requirements imposed on ports. "As our agency has learned in managing the North Bend Municipal Airport (the only full commercial service airport on the Oregon coast) many ports do not have the financial resource necessary to comply with federal mandates. Federal funding is imperative to the success of any maritime security law, and we believe this applies to publicly-owned and privately-owned marine terminals," Gaul wrote.
-- committing to continuing free trade and commerce unhindered. "It is important to gear the regulation to the perceived problem rather than simply applying a blanket approach or to treat all ports in all situations the same," Gaul wrote.
-- and ensuring the historic mission of the Coast Guard in the Pacific Northwest is not altered from search and rescue and any changes to the Coast Guard's responsibilities should include increases in personnel and other resources.
The Port of Coos Bay was one of three from Oregon that was asked to be represented at the hearing. The other two ports included the Port of Portland and the inland Port of Umatilla.
Among the industry and agency personnel also invited to speak were Coast Guard Vice Admiral Terry Cross; Douglas Browning, deputy commissioner of U.S. Customs Service; Nike Director John Isbell; and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union.
While the Port of Coos Bay may not feel the impacts on trade as much as larger ports that can handle containerized cargo, Gaul cautioned against de-emphasizing risks to the Bay Area.
"We're probably a lower-risk port as far as bringing in some type of personnel or weapons or bomb," Gaul said, "but I think we're equally important as all other ports because we are a deep draft port."