COAST GUARD SAYS EXTRA TASKS STRETCH HARBOR SAFETY THIN

The Port of New York is vulnerable to a terrorist attack in the aftermath
of Sept. 11 and its existing security safeguards are stretched thin,
speakers at a Congressional hearing said yesterday.

Coast Guard officials said they had stepped up security checks of the
deep-water vessels that enter the port weekly, about 100 on average, and
strengthened intelligence operations to alert them to a ship's cargo,
personnel and previous ports of call before it arrives at New York Harbor.
But those same officials conceded that the heightened security diverted
Coast Guard workers from many of their routine safety, drug and
environmental protection duties.

"The port represents a huge opportunity for those who would wish us harm,"
said Representative Robert Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat whose district
includes the huge container ports and fuel tank farms of Port Newark and
the Elizabeth Marine Terminal. "The superport of the East Coast has to be
moved up on the list of security priorities because there is not a more
vulnerable port in the nation."

The Port of New York and New Jersey is the biggest container port on the
East Coast, making it an appealing target for terrorists who might consider
packing biological weapons or explosives into sealed shipping containers,
speakers said. It is also the largest fuel depot in the nation, so any
explosion would cause widespread destruction.

The comments came at a hearing of the subcommittee on Coast Guard and
maritime transportation of the House Transportation Committee. The focus
was a bill sponsored by the subcommittee chairman, Representative Frank A.
LoBiondo, that would give $75 million to the Coast Guard to assess the
security of foreign ports, improve ship surveillance, issue security cards
for workers in sensitive port areas and draw up antiterrorism plans for all
the nation's ports.

Mr. LoBiondo, a Republican from southern New Jersey, said that in addition
to his bill, the White House was proposing $255 million in this year's
supplemental budget for port security. Coast Guard officials in Washington
added that the administration had also proposed an increase of nearly $2
billion in the service's fiscal year 2003 budget, much of which would be
used to increase security. The current fiscal year's budget is $5.37
billion. "The debate over these increases will take place, but we need to
get started now and my bill will allow us to move forward," Mr. LoBiondo said.

While there seemed to be bipartisan support for Mr. LoBiondo's measure, and
for the supplemental appropriation, yesterday's hearing did show fault
lines in the Democratic and Republican approaches. Mr. Menendez and other
Democrats suggested that new port fees or other revenue-producing measures
were needed, while Mr. LoBiondo said he and other Republicans "strongly
oppose" such an approach.

An estimated 11,000 vessels carrying 3 million shipping containers, 560,000
automobiles and nearly 30 billion gallons of oil and petroleum products
move in and out of the port annually, said Richard M. Larrabee, director of
port commerce for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. In the
last six months, heightened security concerns have complicated the already
difficult task of balancing the needs of commerce against the commands of
environmental protection, he said.

Nowhere has that been more evident than in the shift in inspections of
ships entering the port. Capt. Craig E. Bone, the Coast Guard's captain of
the port, said the service closed the port on Sept. 11 and reopened it the
next day, with security inspections of all entering ships. Within three
weeks, the number of inspections had been cut by 50 percent as more
intelligence became available.

Since November, cargo and passenger ships have been required to transmit to
the Coast Guard detailed information 96 hours before their arrival. Captain
Bone said that thanks to the advance information, the Coast Guard was now
conducting security inspections of only three to five ships a day.

Falling by the wayside, however, were regular safety inspections for
vessels' seaworthiness and those for environmental protection systems.
Captain Bone said the Coast Guard had cut back on inspections for drugs and
routine environmental checks of offshore fishing vessels.