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Rules Aim to Make Ports More Secure

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Times Staff Writer

WASHINGTON -- Thousands of ships and port facilities across the country will tighten security against potential terrorist attacks under regulations issued Tuesday by the Department of Homeland Security.

The regulations, which will become final later this year, require that more than 5,000 port facilities and 10,000 vessels assess their potential vulnerability and develop plans to plug security holes, including establishing baggage, cargo and passenger screening similar to that at airports.

In addition, vessels and port facilities must participate in annual emergency drills and designate security officials. Some domestic ships will be outfitted with an Automatic Identification System, a transponder that electronically transmits detailed information about a ship to other ships or to shore.

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“We think raising the security standards around the world is good for the U.S.,” said Rear Adm. Larry Hereth, the Coast Guard’s director of port security. “You have all the good guys out there looking for the bad guys.”

Security levels at the nation’s 361 ports would be raised and lowered in correlation with the color-coded threat advisory issued by the Department of Homeland Security.

The regulations apply to international and domestic passenger vessels -- including ferries, riverboat casinos and dinner cruise ships carrying more than 150 passengers -- as well as cargo ships, tugboats, barges and offshore oil and gas platforms. Ports that handle dangerous cargo also are targeted.

The Coast Guard, working with U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the Transportation Security Administration, drafted the regulations following public meetings last winter. More than 2,100 members of the maritime industry participated in the meetings, said Jolie Shifflet, a spokeswoman for the Coast Guard.

Most port officials support increased security measures but are unsure how the ports will pay for them.

“From our standpoint, we’re glad the Coast Guard released their interim rules for security requirements,” said Peter Dailey, the maritime director of the Port of San Francisco. “A lot’s been done in American ports to upgrade their security plans. The big question is going to be funding.”

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More than 95% of all overseas trade is done by ship, and $738 billion of cargo moves across U.S. docks each year. “The maritime mode of transportation contributes greatly to the quality of life and prosperity of the United States,” Hereth said. “We don’t want that to be messed with.”

Last fall’s temporary shutdown of West Coast ports in a labor dispute cost an estimated $2 billion a day in commercial losses. Hereth, who estimated that implementing the regulations will cost $1.5 billion in the first year, hopes ports and vessels can “balance the flow of commerce with ratcheting up security.”

Dailey said small- and medium-sized ports would be the most hard-pressed to come up with the necessary capital. Security costs at the Port of Redwood City, in Northern California, have risen 50% in the last year and a half, said port director Michael Giari.

California ports, including the major ports in Los Angeles and Long Beach, are already developing security strategies with the help of $170 million in grants distributed last month by the Transportation Security Administration.

Los Angeles and Long Beach are coordinating their efforts with law enforcement officials “to develop one plan for the entire port complex,” said William Ellis, the director of security at the Port of Long Beach.

“Our goal is to look at all the vulnerabilities in the port and identify solutions that will help to mitigate those vulnerabilities,” he said. “Security is always a work in progress.”

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About 45% of all container cargo entering the United States passes through the Long Beach or Los Angeles ports. That high volume makes security “a major challenge,” Ellis said.

The vulnerability of the nation’s ports has been a concern for some time.

“Ports are big, complex, diverse operations that have lots of opportunities and lots of targets there because of the hazardous nature of cargo moved, because of the people involved,” Hereth said.

The new regulations give a specific time frame to the broad strokes of the 2002 Maritime Transportation Security Act, which established an elaborate screening process for all vessels entering U.S. ports.

That legislation also created maritime security teams of fast-responding Coast Guard crews at several major ports, including Los Angeles and Long Beach, with more to come by the end of the year.

The regulations are open for public comment until July 31, and the final versions are expected to take effect in November.

Ports will have until Dec. 31 to submit their proposed security plans. Approved plans will be put into place domestically and abroad starting July 1, 2004.

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The Homeland Security directive extends to 102 countries as part of an international code written in cooperation with the United Nations-chartered International Maritime Organization.

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