The Inland Waterway Invitation To Terrorism

Congress is now considering a bill that would give security at American ports a much-needed shot in the arm.  The homeland security appropriations bill now in debate would, if enacted, provide $350 million for the port security grant program.  That’s a major jump over last year, increasing spending in that area by $50 million.

The bill also provides finance support for the Coast Guard, as well as funding for increased security grant programs for means of land transit, like buses and trains.

But here at The All Hazards Training Center at The University of Findlay, it is the maritime component of the bill that caught our attention.  Findlay is part of the Rural Domestic Preparedness Consortium, and we provide security training and planning for waterway officials in rural areas.  So we watch events in the maritime sector of domestic security.

Many are surprised at the immense traffic of rural inland waterways.  The Port of Huntington-Tri-State, our largest inland port, handles nearly 80 million tons of cargo each year but is barely within 3 hours of any city of a half-million people or more.  And ports and marine terminals are only the most obvious component of marine commerce. River and seaway locks are also a vital part of the nation’s waterway system.

Infrastructurereportcard.org is a fascinating site created by civil engineers that provides their report card for categories of U.S. infrastructure.  The site recently graded inland waterways a frightening D minus, citing the fact that nearly half of all locks are obsolete.  Should a lock or a busy river or lake port, like Duluth, MN, or our nearby Port of Toledo, or the Soo Locks, become a victim of a terrorist attack, U.S. transportation could be altered drastically.  The reverberation would not only cause major changes to the transportation of goods in the immediate days following the attack, thanks to re-routing, but the reaction of maritime security nationwide could greatly slow traffic at all ports and on all rivers.

This week, New Jersey Senator Frank Lautenberg touted the current appropriations bill as crucial to the security of the Port of Newark.  Clearly, a huge maritime facility like Newark is a visible and complex target with ongoing security concerns.  But like many who address the needs of rural responders and security managers, our Findlay All Hazards staff wonders when terrorism will come to an inland target.  It’s our hope that the programs that arise from this new appropriation bill will meet the needs of inland and rural ports and terminals, as well as those of the larger ports of the U.S.