Net tight for G-8 security on water

Net tight for G-8 security on water
Boats, planes restricted for summit
Dan Chapman - Staff
Wednesday, April 7, 2004

Savannah --- Law enforcement officials, worried about a possible terrorist attack during the Group of Eight summit of world leaders in June, are implementing extraordinary maritime security measures.

Sea Island, where the leaders will spend the bulk of their three-day gathering, and the Savannah International Trade & Convention Center, where they will hold a final news conference, will be transformed into fortresses impregnable from land, air or sea.

But security planners are also paying keen attention to the potential for mayhem along the Savannah River, lined with storage facilities for oil, gas, ammonia, propane and other flammable and toxic substances.

No-fly zones will be imposed over Sea Island and sectors of Savannah, including the skies above the liquefied natural gas facility on nearby Elba Island, the port and the trade center. Boat traffic will be curtailed in the "security zone" stretching from above the port to below Elba Island.

The liquefied natural gas and anhydrous ammonia plants have agreed to halt deliveries during the summit. Commercial ships and shrimp boats will be kept three miles from Sea Island, except when heading to and from their berths. The Intracoastal Waterway will be closed to all boats on both sides of the Savannah River.

"We're planning for the worst, so if anything happens we're ready for it," said Cmdr. Timothy Close, the Coast Guard's man in charge in Savannah.

More than $10 million has been spent since Sept. 11, 2001, to fortify the state's ports in Savannah and Brunswick, as well as the private terminals and storage facilities lining the Savannah River.

But the Coast Guard, often at the behest of the Secret Service, has further tightened the security screws since the summit was announced in July. W. David Wilkinson, special agent-in-charge of the Secret Service's field office in Atlanta, will explain security plans for Savannah, Brunswick, St. Simons Island and Sea Island on April 16 at a meeting on St. Simons.

Hundreds of hours spent planning, inspecting and role-playing worst-case scenarios have convinced security experts that the presidents and prime ministers will be safe during the June 8-10 summit.

The gathering of U.S., British, French, German, Canadian, Russian, Italian and Japanese leaders carries the National Special Security Event designation, the highest U.S. security rating.

The Coast Guard, Navy, Georgia Department of Natural Resources, Glynn County deputies, Brunswick police and others will set a security cordon around the islands to keep boats well offshore and protesters and potential terrorists firmly on the mainland.

With the skies and waters around Sea Island so heavily patrolled --- naval destroyers and submarines may be added to the mix --- opportunities for terrorists appear slim. Savannah poses greater security challenges when President Bush and other world leaders visit for a few hours on the last day of the summit.

Last month, a Swedish man stopped by police on St. Simons Island and at the nuclear power plant near Baxley was arrested after trying to get access to "sensitive" areas, said FBI special agent Steve Lazarus. Andre Reuter, 43, was charged with visa fraud and awaits a deportation hearing in Atlanta.

An Oregon man also was arrested last month in Savannah after he allegedly talked of scoping out federal buildings as targets. The Secret Service recently warned the Coast Guard, port officials and private terminal operators along the Savannah River to be on the lookout for mysterious scuba divers.

"There are so many targets of, shall we say, opportunity in our area," said Charles Sutlive, executive director of the Savannah Maritime Association. "In the conditions we're operating under these days, you just have to feel that [terrorist acts] aren't over yet. It just behooves us to maintain a high state of readiness."

In all, 28 private terminals, tank farms and other port facilities line the waters around Savannah and, to a lesser extent, Brunswick. Sutlive and others label Georgia's main port, just upriver from historic Savannah and the trade center, as their top security concern.

"It's so hard to check each and every container," said Sutlive, whose association comprises 73 maritime industries.

Savannah and Brunswick welcomed 2,246 ships during the 2003 fiscal year. And more than 1.5 million containers were shipped in and out of Savannah's port --- a 32 percent increase from the year before. With U.S. Customs and Border Protection able to screen only 5.5 percent of all incoming containers, security experts fear the smuggling in of explosives or chemical, biological or nuclear weapons.

Customs agents employ X-ray scanners to peer inside inbound containers at Savannah's port. The Department of Homeland Security recently unveiled radiation monitors at the New York-New Jersey ports to detect "dirty bombs." Savannah will get its monitor this fall, said Robert Gomez, a Customs director of field operations for five Southern states.

The Georgia Ports Authority augments the federal measures. Since Sept. 11, the ports have received $4.5 million from Washington to boost security primarily for fencing, high-wattage lighting, 15 strategically positioned cameras, and security badges for employees, dockworkers and truckers. Seventy-five officers also guard

" They've gotten millions of dollars to upgrade security, but what have they spent it on? Higher fences and better lighting are all things that can easily be overcome by a determined person," said Judy Jennings, a Savannah environmental activist who monitors port security.

Jennings and Sara Barczak, safe energy director of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, an environmental advocacy group, worry most about the liquefied natural gas terminal on Elba Island outside Savannah.

In November, the Homeland Security agency warned that U.S. natural gas facilities might be targets of al-Qaida terrorist attacks. Chris Humes, area manager of Southern LNG, which operates the massive natural gas terminal and storage facility on Elba Island, isn't unduly worried.

"Anybody that's educated about LNG will say it's not really an attractive target," he said. "These are very sturdy ships which, from time to time, have been involved in marine casualties, but there hasn't been any release of LNG. [And] the terminal is also very isolated, surrounded by marsh. Our closest neighbor is over 1.7 miles away."

Southern officials recite a litany of security measures taken to protect the shipment and storage of liquefied natural gas: two-mile "moving safety zones" fore and aft of tankers plying the river; Coast Guard escorts, sometimes with helicopters; 13 security cameras; fences surrounding 850-acre Elba Island; and a security gate at the sole entrance.

Congress recently handed Southern LNG $200,000 to buy a patrol boat. Colonial Terminals, which stores petroleum and chemical products alongside the port, received $940,000 for fencing and other security measures. The federal government has spent $8.2 million on Georgia maritime security, with nearly half that amount given to private tank and terminal operators.