Point of uncertainty

Time in office is fast drawing to a close for Governor Lincoln Almond, the most ardent advocate of establishing a container port near Quonset Point. The state's next governor will play a key role in determining what happens next

by Ian Donnis

Although similar efforts preceded his arrival as governor, Lincoln Almond has long since emerged as the most aggressive proponent of establishing a container port at Quonset Point in North Kingstown. And despite all the support that Almond has put behind the contentious proposal -- most notably convincing the General Assembly to allocate $1.5 million last month for an environmental impact study (EIS) -- he'll be long gone from office before this extensive multi-year analysis comes to a conclusion.

Somewhat peeved by criticism that he's trying to force his plan on the state, Almond says the project he has in mind -- a 200-acre automated container port -- is benign compared with the sprawling ports in cities like New York and Baltimore. And rather than being determined to bring about this vision at any cost, the governor says his support is conditioned on two big uncertainties: whether the port is environmentally acceptable, and if so, whether a private interest will emerge to develop it. "The ultimate test of economic feasibility is someone investing $400 million, because the state's not going to do it," he says. "If it's going to be built, and if it's permitable, it should be a private venture."

After dozens of studies of Narragansett Bay, Almond describes the EIS as the definitive way to answer questions about the feasibility of a concept, which, he says, could bring Rhode Island an economic windfall and a larger chunk of global trade. "We've been debating the issue of a port now for over 25 years," Almond says. "Should we not at some point say, `Can you or can't you?' And let me say this: if we can't -- if there are environmental issues there that can't be overcome -- we shouldn't have a port, end of story. Who would disagree with that?"

Well, a lot of people, including a fair number of the governor's prospective successors. Among the most outspoken is Don Carcieri, a Republican-leaning retired businessman from East Greenwich, who, like state Representative Antonio J. Pires, (D-Pawtucket), chairman of the House Finance Committee, and two-time Democratic gubernatorial candidate Myrth York, sees the $1.5 million investment in the EIS as a poor use of the taxpayers' money. Like other critics, they say there's nothing to justify this initial level of spending -- and millions more will be required to complete the study -- particularly when the viability of the port remains in doubt and not a single private firm has expressed interest in developing the project.

Attorney General Sheldon Whitehouse recently clashed with Almond on the port issue in his official capacity, compelling the administration to release a five-page planning memo. But Whitehouse, a likely Democratic frontrunner in 2002, has yet to publicly reveal his stance on the port issue. Other likely gubernatorial candidates, including Lieutenant Governor Charles Fogarty, a Democrat, and his Republican predecessor, Bernard Jackvony, describe proceeding with the EIS as a logical step, although they -- like Almond -- caution that not harming Narragansett Bay and the state's quality of life are vital considerations.

There's little doubt that the 3000-acre Quonset-Davisville port and commerce park, with an airstrip, access to the water, proximity to good schools, and even a golf course, is a prime location for additional economic development. Port advocates contend that Rhode Island, which was devastated by the departure of the Navy from Quonset in 1974, could gain hundreds, or thousands, of jobs and other economic benefits by combining port development with millions of dollars in nearby rail and road improvements. As former governor Bruce Sundlun wrote in a recent Providence Journal op-ed, container traffic is growing and Quonset, just eight miles from the open seas, "sets the stage for cheaper, more competitive operations than any other East Coast port." The state's consultant, R.K. Johns & Associates, cited similar reasons in recommending that the state move forward with the EIS.

But there's no small share of fierce opposition to this plan. Most US ports are publicly subsidized, and a specific business plan for Quonset -- such as the kind of container cargo that would be off-loaded -- hasn't been identified. Citing this lack of particulars, and questioning the ability of Rhode Island to compete with larger, publicly subsidized ports, critics say it makes no sense to proceed with the costly EIS. And TransSystems Corporation, a prominent port developer hired as a consultant by the town of North Kingstown, concluded that it "does not believe that [project] feasibility has clearly been demonstrated for the proposed Quonset Port and therefore, will not prevail under the scrutiny of an EIS process."

Nor has administration, or the quasi-public Economic Development Corporation, helped itself by flouting opposition to the project and being less than forthcoming in some instances, such as the recent mercury spill at the Quonset steam plant. "The community is so distrustful, it makes it hard to do anything," says Topher Hamblett, Save The Bay's director of advocacy. "There's no trust."

Most dramatically, a container port would require dredging a 45-foot shipping channel -- a significant impact that, critics say, could adversely affect shellfishers and the ecology of Narragansett Bay. Sparked by these concerns, the prospect of a container port has sparked widespread protest. Municipal officials in almost a dozen of the towns near North Kingstown have voted against the concept, and Save The Bay and the Conservation Law Foundation formed an alliance to challenge the project. And although the administration would certainly like to attain a federally designated shipping lane -- a measure that would enable sharing with the feds for the estimated $60 million to $100 million cost -- the strong skepticism of US Senator Lincoln Chafee, a member of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, could dampen this prospect.

It remains to be seen whether alternative ideas for development at Quonset will gain traction. Chafee, for example, favors more discussion of relocating the industrial uses around the Port of Providence to Quonset, and redeveloping the Providence waterfront -- a notion that would jibe with the Narragansett Landing component of Providence Mayor Vincent A. "Buddy" Cianci Jr.'s envisioned New Cities program. Although this idea has considerable appeal, the cost of relocating and cleaning old industrial sites could prove prohibitive.

REGARDLESS OF the merits, the EIS is slated to go forward for now and the initial funding creates no small amount of forward momentum. The resulting process directed by the Army Corps of Engineers, and ultimately overseen by the Environmental Protection Agency, is expected to take between two and six years, although legal challenges in some cases have considerably extended the process. Almond believes the related costs, if they decisively answer questions about development at Quonset, will represent money well spent.

"What amazes me is the opposition of environmental groups to an environmental impact statement, because this is the very process that the environmentalists put in place . . . to study the environment by an impartial third party," says Almond, barely concealing his incredulity. "It's not something I'm going to control, or North Kingstown's going to control, or the shipping company's going to control, or anyone else. It's going to be impartial, as impartial as you can possibly get."

But other observers, such Seth Kaplan, director of Rhode Island advocacy for the Conservation Law Foundation, have little faith in the state's ability to move forward with the EIS in an intelligent way. Comparing the approach to a person who goes to the accountant at tax time with a shoebox of disheveled receipts, Kaplan believes that a container port is highly unlikely to happen at Quonset, even under a worst-case scenario, because the environmental impact will be too great -- a situation that Almond concedes is plausible. Still, he says, "It's a question of how far along are we going to go -- how much money are we going to burn on this?" If a pro-port governor succeeds Almond and vigorously pursues the project, it could mean that the port concept dies, Kaplan says, but only "after 10 years and tens of millions of dollars and [a lot more] bad blood."

Of course, things will likely be quite different if Rhode Island's next governor is less enthusiastic about the port. Almond has been able to keep his critics at bay on this issue well into his second term, but his tenure is fast drawing to a close. The 2002 gubernatorial contest will take shape in the coming months, and the highly motivated opponents of the port can be counted on to make this a signal issue during the ensuing legislative and gubernatorial campaign.

CRUISING OUT OF upper Narragansett Bay on a 27-foot ultra-light motorboat during a recent weekday morning, the impact of different industrial uses are impossible not to notice, from the harsh odors coming from an asphalt plant to the oil tanks and piles of scrap metal that inhabit Providence Harbor. Within a brief distance, though, the air quality changes significantly for the better as Hamblett, John Torgan, baykeeper for Save The Bay, and I head south toward the heart of the bay. "This is it," Torgan says a short time later, referring to the water and surrounding ecosystem. "This is the biggest economic engine in the state, the biggest quality of life engine. Anything that puts it at risk is something to be concerned about."

Torgan's assessment, something with which many Rhode Islanders would instinctively agree, goes a long way toward explaining the trepidation inspired by Almond's envisioned container port. It was a proposal to build an oil refinery in Tiverton that galvanized the formation of Save The Bay by a handful of opponents in 1970, and a number of other plans for large industrial projects on the bay have been periodically floated over the years.

Prudence and Patience islands, for example, are preserved in their natural beauty as part of the National Estuary and Research Reserve. But the islands, the complexion of the bay, and the appeal for locals and visitors alike, would be quite different had schemes been approved for building a natural gas facility on Prudence and an oil refinery on Patience Island. "As long as we've been around, there have been many proposals to create large industrial development on the bay," Torgan says. "We think it can and should exist in balance with the other uses of the bay and not become the dominant use of the bay."

With enhanced standards, environmental improvements can be as visible as the striped bass and blue crabs now found in the Providence River in downtown Providence -- a dramatic change from just eight years ago. Still, despite dramatic reductions in some forms of pollution in the bay, there are other concerns, such as the almost total depletion of eelgrass, a vital component of the marine ecosystem. On the whole, says Torgan, "We feel like we're getting ahead, finally seeing some of the benefits of our 30 years of hard work." The matter now "becomes about choices about how we want the bay to be in the future."

DON CARCIERI, who has hired some full-time staff, is organizing a finance committee, and says he's looking seriously at running for governor as a Republican, is a particularly potent container port critic because of his GOP orientation and business credentials. The retired former president of Cookson America calls container ports a lousy business, and says they're "one of the last things we'd ever think of investing in," if the state received an unexpected financial windfall.

Carcieri is also seriously skeptical of the kind of automated container port envisioned by Almond, and the fact that no one has expressed interest in operating it. "I think it's very fuzzy, disorganized, and not well thought through," he says. Recalling how a previous port scheme involving Quonset Point Partners collapsed in 1999 because of a lack of financial commitments, Carcieri asks, "If we go to permitting, who's going to operate it? If you don't have someone ready to operate it, you may have wasted everything" -- all the money and effort spent to that point. Carcieri believes the container port will come to fruition only if the state chooses to operate it -- a situation, he says, that would be "a disaster."

Although business officials are disinclined to publicly criticize Almond's container port plan, Carcieri says, "I find the vast majority say they don't understand it at all. We [Cookson America] had about six plants in Rhode Island and nearby. I know the issue of a container port benefiting our business never came up. I'd be amazed if I found very many [business people] that thought it would benefit their business. It seems like we're marching forward on some kind of theory that this is going to be good for economic development in the state, and I just don't buy generalities . . . To me, we've wasted too much time and energy already."

Carcieri says it would make more sense to focus on an effort to complement -- and certainly not undermine -- the distinctive qualities that contribute mightily to Rhode Island's quality of life. "You have to be careful that you don't go down a path destroying what makes you unique to begin with," he says. As one small example of a better use, he cites the idea of creating a world-class center for ocean research and exploration, such as has been discussed for Mystic, Connecticut.

Many of the same criticisms are expressed by Antonio J. Pires, who's moving ahead with plans for a gubernatorial run, and Myrth York, who, after losing to Almond in 1994 and 1998, says she's seriously considering another run for the State House.

York faults Almond for trying to impose his port plan on the state despite a significant amount of public opposition. "I think just that -- it's his vision. It doesn't take into account, and hasn't come about through, a process that involves Rhode Islanders' vision for the bay and for Quonset Point, and I think that's a mistake."

The former Democratic state senator from Providence's East Side also opposes the decision to allocate $1.5 million for the environmental impact study. "There should be a process that brings in the various constituency groups, that works to come up with some practical alternatives, maybe more than one, and then you look at the economic viability," she says. "I think the governor's put the cart before the horse."

"I think it's going to be a very difficult year to move any major projects forward," York says, because of public opposition, legislative downsizing, and Almond's lame-duck status. "I think one of the mistakes with his vision is that he doesn't have sufficient public support, and it's very difficult to push through something without that kind of support."

Pires, an insurance broker who has served in the House since 1986, is unequivocal in his opposition to the container port. "If I were elected governor, there would be no likelihood of me moving forward with a container port, because I just don't believe it's an environmentally or economically good investment," he says. The jobs that might be created by the project, Pires says, are not numerous enough to offset the potential harm to the environment.

Pires was among a handful of legislators who voted in House Finance against the legislature's $1.5 million allocation for the environmental impact study. "I don't believe it's a wise investment at this time," he says. It's clear that much more will be needed to complete the EIS, although how much "nobody really knows," Pires says, and there's "no one waiting there at the door to make the private investment." Ultimately, he concludes, "I think they [the administration] lost sight of the objective here. The objective here was to make a good investment."

Even though the attorney general's office has been a prominent graveyard for political ambitions, Whitehouse can be expected to be a force in the Democratic field of gubernatorial candidates, and he's well respected within the environmental community, particularly for his prosecution as US attorney of the 1996 North Cape oil spill. "I know he cares deeply about Narragansett Bay and the environment," says Save The Bay's Hamblett. "Sheldon's also a smart guy and I think he would ensure that the state would do its homework on port development."

For now, though, he remains an undeclared candidate, so, "at this time, he doesn't have a position on the Almond administration's handling of the port," says Bill Fischer, the director of Whitehouse's exploratory campaign. "Obviously, anybody who's going to be a candidate for governor in 2002 is going to have to take a position on Quonset. And that's certainly something we're certainly evaluating at this time as a campaign organization."

Candidate Jackvony and Fogarty, who says he's very seriously looking at a bid for governor, basically echo Almond in perceiving a need for the environmental impact study to determine whether a container port is environmentally feasible, and also whether any private entity will emerge to develop the site without a public subsidy. Two other prospective Republican candidates, former attorney general Jeff Pine, and Jim Bennett, who lost a 1998 bid for general treasurer, didn't return calls seeking comment.

"I don't believe anyone envisions development of a port similar to large US ports such as New York or Baltimore," says Jackvony, a lawyer and former chairman of the state Republican Party. "It's just not a megaport that anyone wants to support. I don't think anyone wants that to happen." Nonetheless, "The process that's ongoing should continue. There should be a sensitivity to the operations now there [at Quonset]."

Fogarty, who ousted Jackvony in 1998 to work as a Democratic lieutenant governor alongside the Republican Almond, sounds quite similar to his GOP predecessor. "I think we need to proceed very cautiously, especially when we're going to have a significant impact on Narragansett Bay," he says. "I do support the funding of the environmental and economic study, because I think there are two things we need to know: one, is this concept environmentally sound? And is it economically viable? Right now, it's just a concept. Most importantly, we as a state need to know once and for all whether this is theoretically possible, economically or environmentally." It also has to be determined, he says, whether the port would be the best use for the site and whether it makes sense within the larger context of Narragansett Bay and the state's quality of life.

At the same time, Fogarty, like some other observers, raps the amount of time dedicated by the Economic Development Commission, including director Tom Schumpert, to the container port issue. "I think we need a little better balance there," he says.

Ian Donnis can be reached at idonnis[a]phx.com.