Feds Plan to Extend 100 Percent Box Scan Deadline to 2014

The federal government plans to extend the deadline for reaching 100 percent scanning of containers at foreign ports being loaded on United States-bound vessels, citing funding and technology limitations.

US Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told a US Senate panel last week that due to these limitations, the scanning deadline called for in a 2007 law that sought to close potential homeland security loopholes following the Sept. 11. 2001 terrorist attacks could not be met.

“In order to implement the 100 percent scanning requirement by the 2012 deadline, DHS would need significant resources for greater manpower and technology, technologies that do not currently exist, and the redesign of many ports,” Napolitano told members of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee on Wednesday.

While Napolitano did not offer specifics as to the extensions, a Government Accounting Office report issued the same day said that the government will offer a blanket extension through July 2014 to all foreign ports.

In 2007 Congress passed and President George Bush signed the 9/11 Recommendations Implementation Act, which adopted about 80 percent of the security recommendations made by the Congressional 9/11 Commission. Included in these was a recommendation to provide 100 percent scanning by July 2012 of all US-bound containers before being loaded aboard vessels at foreign ports. The law, however, provided criteria by which the DHS Secretary could grant two-year extensions for ports that could not meet the deadline, including technology limitations, incompatible port facilities and marked disruptions to the flow of cargo.

The GAO report found that the potential to disrupt the flow of trade and limitations of existing scanning technology would apply to all foreign ports and thus warrant the blanket deadline extension.

Napolitano told the Senate panel that a $100 million Customs and Border Protection pilot scanning program at five foreign ports found that port configuration problems were prevalent and presented difficulties to achieving 100 percent scanning. Problems with the efficacy of the high-tech equipment in a marine environment were also noted.
The secretary also told the panel that total DHS bill for 100 percent scanning at 700 foreign ports, not including those costs borne by foreign governments or ports, could reach nearly $17 billion, or about $8 million for each of the 2,100 trade lanes servicing the US.

“Installing equipment and placing personnel at all of these ports– even the tiny ones– would strain government resources without a guarantee of results,” Napolitano told the senators. The CBP pilot program, according to the GAO report, was able to achieve no greater than 86 percent scanning of container headed to the US, despite the relatively small size of three of the ports in the program. At the two large ports in the program, Hong Kong and Busan, South Korea– where scanning was only implemented at one terminal and one gate– scanning configurations could not sustain more scanning levels of more than 5 percent.

Napolitano, who did not say when her agency would officially seek the 2014 extensions, also left the door open for resetting the deadline to an earlier date if technology breakthroughs were developed.

Senators on the panel, some staunch supporters of the original 2007 law and 2012 deadline, appeared sympathetic to the problems expressed by the secretary.

"I have my questions about whether that's doable," panel chair Sen. John D. Rockefeller, D-W.Va, said of the 2012 deadline. "That does not mean that we should not continue to strengthen our security protocols to prevent high-risk cargo from entering this country, whether by land, sea or air."

Israel Corp CEO Named Chair of Zim Board

The Board of Directors of Zim Integrated Shipping Services has appointed Nir Gilad to serve as Chairman of the Zim board, according to a notification to the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange by Zim parent firm Israel Corporation Ltd.

Gilad, an accountant and former budget minister for the Israeli government and current CEO of Israel Corp., succeeds Idan Ofer who is stepping down at the end of his five-year term as chairman. Ofer's family remain the largest shareholders of Israel Corp., with Ofer himself owning 3.9 percent of the firm's stock, Ofer Holdings owning 2.9 percent and the Ofer family-controlled Millennium Investments Elad owning 46.9 percent.

Gilad takes the helm of Zim's board less than two weeks after the shipping firm reported a third quarter loss of $208 million and a month after Zim shareholders approved a restructuring plan that includes raising $450 million in cash by selling stock rights in the firm.

CTSA to Raise Bunker Charge Jan. 1

Members of the Canada Transpacific Stabilization Agreement, which include ocean carriers APL, COSCO Container Lines, Evergreen, Hapag-Lloyd, Hyundai Merchant Marine, “K” Line, NYK Line, OOCL, Yang Ming and Zim Integrated Shipping Services, said last week that they will raise their bunker surcharge effective Jan. 1, 2010.

For cargo moving through the Canadian West Coast ports, the group's Bunker Surcharge/Fuel Recovery Charge will increase $32 per 20-foot container to $278, $40 per 40-foot container to $348, $46 per 40-foot high-cube container to $392, and $50 per 45-foot container to $440.

Rates will also increase for East Coast traffic, with the group's Bunker Surcharge/Fuel Recovery Charge increasing $61 per 20-foot container to $551, $76 per 40-foot container to $689, $85 per 40-foot high-cube container to $775, and $96 per 45-foot container to $872.

The CTSA members said they will continue to monitor fuel prices and notify customers of any further adjustments. The group last adjusted the Bunker Surcharge/Fuel Recovery Charge in October of this year.

Obama Nominates Khouri for FMC Seat

President Obama intends to nominate attorney Michael A. Khouri, a 35-year veteran of the maritime industry, to a seat on the five-member board of the Federal Maritime Commission.

If confirmed by Congress, Khouri will fill one of two vacant seats on the Commission board and become the second person named as a FMC commissioner by Obama. Two Bush appointees are still serving terms on the panel.

Most recently Khouri served as a private attorney with the Louisville, Ky.-based law firm of Pedley & Gordinier. Prior to this he spent 23 years with Jeffersonville, Ind.-based American Commercial Lines, where he rose to serve as general counsel and senior vice-president. ACL is a barge and shipbuilding firm that services the Gulf Coast and Mississippi River watershed. Previously Khouri served as president and CEO of Memphis, Tenn.-based MERS/Economy Boat, a fuel and supply chandler.

Khouri, who began his maritime career as a deckhand in the 1970s, has also served on the boards of two influential maritime industry trade and lobbying groups– the American Waterways Operators Association and the Waterways Council Inc.

The FMC Board currently consists of Obama-appointee and chair Richard Lidinsky, Jr., and Bush appointees Joeseph Brennan and Rebecca Dye.

Special Feature: Small Tug for a Big Job

By: Hugh Ware (As seen in the December issue of Pacific Maritime Magazine) Photo: Philips Publishing Group File Photo

There is an amazing collection of tug smarts that reside just north of the US/Canada border in British Columbia. An example is the hydrogen-electric hybrid tug that Mark Mulligan’s Capilano Maritime Design Ltd is developing with Seaspan International Ltd., DC Maritime Technologies Inc. and Ballard Power Systems (see Pacific Maritime Magazine, August 2009). Another set of tug smarts resides in the brain of Vancouver-based, innovative tug-designer A.G. “Al” McIlwain, whose simple but cleverly innovative tugs are popular in both British Columbia and New Zealand and Australia. And don’t forget Vancouver’s Robert Allan Ltd., possibly the world’s leading tug designer, and Ladysmith’s Ron Burchett, the knowledgeable and creative maker of radio-controlled model tugs.

While it may look like a toy, the latest concept tug out of British Columbia is the brainchild of Burchett and Robert Allan. They call it the BRAtt (Burchett Robert Allan training tug), and it’s no toy; it is a real, commercial-grade tug but at a quarter-scale version of a Robert Allan Ltd. -designed tug.

At just under the 26-foot length that requires a license to operate, road-truckable and with 8,000+ pounds of bollard pull, this little vessel has the heft and grunt to perform useful work such as dead-tug movement, barge assist, yarding, or acting as a line or boom boat. But, in spite of its obvious usefulness as a general-purpose workboat, the BRAtt is primarily designed to be a tool for training new Z-drive tug operators.

So why a dedicated training tug? The answer is simple: there is a need. Many tugs are being built worldwide, most use stern-mounted azimuthing drives and operators must be found for these new additions to tug fleets, as many tug skippers are approaching retirement.

What is the best way to train operators required for all these new ASDs? On-the-job training is the traditional method. By and large, it has worked but it may take years before an all-round competence is achieved. Training can be a hit-and-miss procedure—intermittent lessons as opportunities become available. Results are highly variable and utterly dependent on the patience and teaching abilities of whoever does the training. Hang around the wheelhouse long enough and maybe a deckhand or mate can learn to drive an ASD safely to the full potential of the tug but can he, and his employer, afford to wait that long?

Radio-controlled models hold promise as training tools, but here the operator is not part of the tug. He can only control a remote object floating in a pond and the tug moves and reacts unnaturally fast. And a pond is just a small pond. Driving a radio-controlled tug is fun and it can teach useful lessons. It’s a good starting point, but the training is not particularly realistic. Burchett knows this all too well. Although he has presented papers at international conferences advocating the use of RC models for training tug masters, now he advocates the BRAtt as the next step in the training regime.

Another training method, computer simulation, varies tremendously in cost and quality. At one end are the inexpensive PC-based computer “games” such as ShipSim™ that, in the words of one reviewer, enable an operator to do some “ship-handling with the benefit of a reset button.” Such games provide remarkable recreations of many harbors and multiple ship types, control of what is happening and different views of the action. But everything happens on a computer monitor or TV screen and control of the simulated vessel is largely a function of agile fingers and thumbs.

At the other extreme are the elaborate simulators that cost millions. Extremely realistic, some simulators have well-equipped “bridges” with 360° views and may even replicate the pitch and roll of a ship well enough to make some people seasick. Again, simulators can provide a useful introduction to ship handling and can be excellent for developing strategies for handling large ships in confined harbours, but can a simulation duplicate the thump and vibration of a tug coming alongside another vessel in the wash from its bow?

A real tug is undoubtedly the ideal training tool. Training will be utterly realistic but it will also be costly in operating and personnel costs and lost opportunities for revenue-creating work. The consequences of operating errors in full scale can also be huge. On the other hand, a BRAtt is a real tug with much of the heft and feel of a much-larger brother (dimensions are 25’ 7” length overall, 11’ 10”beam and 4’ 9” draft) and it is far cheaper to acquire (about US$750,000 with a full training suite to record operator actions and tug reactions for operator training feedback) and relatively inexpensive to operate.

Best of all, a BRAtt is thoroughly equipped and performs realistically in all ASD modes including indirect towing and escort operations. On the bow are a staple and a hydraulic hawser winch with 165 feet of braided polyester line and hydraulic braking, and there is a cruciform towing post aft. The wheelhouse has a full suite of electronics including AIS and radar and below deck is a pair of John Deere or Cummins engines providing up to a total of 400 hp to time-tested, British Columbia-built Olympic azimuthing drives under the tug’s stern. (Schottel also makes azimuthing drives in this lower-horsepower range.) And, as mentioned above, the bollard pull is a very useful 8,000+ pounds.

Can you see and try a BRAtt right now? No, it is still in the concept stage but the design is essentially finalized and production engineering is underway. Perhaps surprisingly to some, construction will be all-aluminum (as has become the custom for most workboats built in British Columbia) and BRAtts will be built by Adrenalin Marine Ltd. , which (conveniently for international customers) has plants in both Vancouver, BC and in Ferndale, WA. Burchett and Allan have active enquiries from several fleet owners who will have to find sizable numbers of trained ASD operators in the near future. International operator training facilities have expressed interest in using the BRAtt as a step between the simulator and full size tug training as they pursue this growing market for operator training.

The basic BRAtt, of course, lends itself to further design variations or to the exploration of environment-friendly power sources at lower costs than with a full-scale tug. A hybrid BRAtt using lithium-ion batteries and hydrogen-fuel cells are being actively developed. The presently available 150 kW Ballard fuel cells are an excellent fit for the BRAtt .

The time may come when many tug fleets will have to have a BRAtt at the end of the company dock, ready to do what it does best—teaching ASD operators.

Long Beach Port: Truck Program To Meet Emission Goals Two Years Early

A Port of Long Beach program to cut port-servicing diesel truck emissions by 80 percent is set to meet its original goal two years ahead of schedule, according to port officials.

Port Executive Director Richard Steinke told the Long Beach City Council on Tuesday that a second ban on certain model year trucks– set to take effect Jan. 1, 2010– will remove an additional 8,000 older trucks from the port drayage service and push the port truck program over the 80 percent emission reduction goal.

The first ban, which took effect at the start of the truck plan on Oct. 1, 2008, barred more than 2,200 pre-1989 model year trucks in the port-servicing fleet from entering the ports. The impending Jan. 1, 2010 ban will bar all pre-1994 trucks from port service as well as all 1994-2003 models that have not been retrofit with pollution control devices.

"Beginning on New Year's Day, Jan. 1, 2010, 8,000 more dirty trucks will be banned forever from working at the port and polluting our air," Steinke told the Council.

Although Steinke's comments seemed to indicate that the 8,000 trucks will be removed directly by the ban, a port news release issued Tuesday appeared to break down the number differently, stating that "Most of the aging big-rigs are already gone, replaced by 5,600 newer, safer and cleaner trucks," with another 2,400 newer trucks already on order and merely awaiting delivery.

The port news release also stated that by Jan. 1, 2010, 90 percent of the trucks providing drayage service to the port would be 2007 model year trucks or newer.

Steinke congratulated the trucking industry for picking up the cost of this ahead-of-schedule transition "on its own dime." The port, for its part, has helped finance "several hundred" newer trucks, according to Stienke, 81 percent of which are alternative fueled vehicles.

While little public documentation exists to support the port claims, the port has completed an air inventory report that details air quality measurements that covers at least a portion of the first year of the truck program. The report is set to be released by the port, perhaps within the month, following an ongoing review of the document by the California Air Resources Board.

Port officials have also indicated that given the apparent success of meeting the truck program goals two years ahead of schedule, new and even more stringent targets for emissions reductions are under consideration and could be amended to the port's clean air plans in the near future.

A truck plan with similar air quality goals was also adopted by the neighboring Port of Los Angeles, but has been hampered by litigation from the trucking industry over several non-environmental points such as language requiring truck drivers to operate only as employees of trucking firms. Long Beach, which never included employee-only language in its plan, settled with the American Trucking Associations in October over the remaining non-environmental issues and has since been removed by a federal judge from the litigation.

Coalition Turns Over Oakland Drayage Fleet Ahead of Port Deadline

A coalition of importers, exporters, trucking companies and ocean carriers has announced that its fleet members servicing the Port of Oakland have met the emissions standards under the port's Clean Truck Management Plan set to take effect Jan. 1.

Coalition for Responsible Transportation members GSC Logistics and California Multimodal, according to a CRT release, have deployed over 200 cleaner-burning trucks meeting the port standards. According to the California Air Resources Board, these trucks will reduce diesel particulate matter by 85 percent per mile driven.

"These companies demonstrate how the trucking industry is really stepping up to meet the new environmental standards," said Port of Oakland Executive Director Omar Benjamin. "These cleaner trucks will significantly reduce diesel particulate emissions and clean the air for a healthier community."

"For GSC, protecting the environment is not just a company initiative, it is our responsibility as members of the community to work toward reversing the threats of pollution and climate change," said Andy Garcia, chairman and executive vice president of GSC Logistics.

According to the CRT, over 90 percent of the clean trucks deployed by GSC Logistics and California Multimodal have been privately financed through a financial support model that includes the trucking company, truck driver, and the importers and exporters who have made financial commitments to use the cleanest available trucks in the marketplace.

Similar private financing moves in response to the Southern California ports' truck programs have seen the industry turn over more than 8,000 vehicles in the Long Beach and Los Angeles drayage fleet.

Longview Port Named Washington Port of Year

The Washington state Port of Longview has been named the 2009 Port of the Year by the Washington Public Ports Association.

In awarding the honor, the WPPA cited the port's successful efforts to recruit the EGT Development grain terminal. The large export grain facility is being built by EGT Development LLC, a partnership by St. Louis-based Bunge North America, Japan's Itochu Corp. and South Korean shipping company STX Pan Ocean. Construction on the 38-acre $200 million project began in August. When completed in 2011, the state-of-the-art facility will allow the simultaneous unloading of up to four, 110-rail car trains.
The WPPA also cited the Longview port's record revenues in 2008--due in large part to the port's development and growth in the wind-energy sector.

“This award is a true reflection of the staff’s dedication and the community’s support of the Port of Longview,” said Longview Executive Director Ken O’Hollaren in a written statement.

Ad Exec Named to Long Beach Port Governing Board

Long Beach Mayor Bob Foster on Tuesday nominated advertising executive and former city planning commissioner Thomas Fields to the Port of Long Beach's Board of Harbor Commissioners.

If confirmed by the Long Beach City Council, Fields will fill the board seat vacated by retiring Commissioner James Hankla during the summer.

"I am honored to have been asked by Mayor Bob Foster to serve on the Harbor Commission," Fields said in a port news release. "This is a major responsibility and I look forward to fulfilling the trust placed in me by the Mayor."

The non-elected five-member Board of Harbor Commissioners manages the city's Harbor Department and sets policy for the Port of Long Beach, the second busiest container port in the Western Hemisphere.

Fields, a Long Beach resident for more than 30 years, has served on the city’s Redevelopment Agency Board and the Planning Commission. He is founder and owner of Thomas Fields Associates, a marketing and advertising agency whose clients include 20th Century Fox, Hyundai, and the Long Beach Housing Development Company. Fields lives in the city’s Eighth Council District, and also serves as vice president on the board of directors for the charitable, non-profit Ronald McDonald House.

Fields' appointment will be reviewed by the Personnel and Civil Service Committee and must be confirmed by the City Council.

News Briefs: Successful Transit of the Northeast Passage

(As seen in the November issue of Pacific Maritime Magazine) Photo:The Russian icebreaker 50 LetPobedyBeluga Foresight leads the 12,744-dwt heavylift ship through an ice field in the Northeast Passage. -Philips Publishing Group File Photo

Near record low sea ice conditions in the Arctic this past summer allowed two German heavylift vessels, the 12,744-dwt twins Beluga Fraternity and Beluga Foresight, to navigate the Northeast Passage between Asia and Europe with commercial cargo, making them the first western merchant vessels to do so. Operated by Germany’s Beluga group, the vessels departed Ulsan, South Korea in late July and spent nearly a month at the Russian port of Vladivostok awaiting various clearances. They then met up with the Russian icebreaker 50 Let Pobedy off Vilkizki Strait on August 31 and moved into the Northeast Passage, the Russian icebreaker Rossia joining the convoy on September 4.

Between September 7 and 14 they were able to safely discharge 44 heavy modules for a Russian water power plant at the mouth of the Ob River before departing for Archangelsk via the Barents Sea. At Archangelsk the ships loaded 6,000 tons of steel pipe each before departing for Onne, Nigeria and a much warmer climate.

Beluga officials, who plan to operate another Northeast Passage sealift next summer with larger “P” class vessels, said there was very little to no ice to break along the route and that the journey saved approximately 3,000 miles and 300,000 euros per vessel compared to traveling via Suez. However, the charter for the voyage, General Electric, had to cover mandatory fees for the Russian icebreaker escort, which were not disclosed.

State Report Finds Bay Area Pilots' Board Still Missing Mark

The state of California's Bureau of State Audits issued a scathing report last week detailing failings and inadequacies of the state board that licenses and regulates pilots in the Bay Area.

The report found that the California Board of Pilot Commissioners for San Francisco, San Pablo and Suisun bays continues to certify pilots without adequate medical review, has failed to investigate accidents involving pilots in a timely manner, and has failed to provide proper training for pilots according to state guidelines.

The pilots, who guide arriving and departing ships into local waterways and earn about $400,000 a year, have been under intense scrutiny since the November 2007 Cosco Busan allision with the Oakland Bay Bridge and resultant oil spill that oiled stretches of San Francisco Bay. The main cause of the allision was later determined to be the fault of Captain John Cota, a state pilot who was at the helm of the Cosco Busan during the incident. Cota is now serving a 10-month stretch in federal prison over the incident. During the Cosco Busan investigation, Cota's medical fitness and the review of this fitness by the pilot board were called into question.

Following the Cosco Busan incident, state lawmakers passed stringent regulations regarding, among other things, the pilot board's medical review process.

Last week's 68-page report detailed nine areas of concern found by the state auditor, including:

• The board paid for business-class airfare for pilots attending training in France, which may constitute a misuse of public funds.
• The board lacked a procedure, required in state law, for access to confidential information, and it released information to the public that included a pilot's home address and Social Security number.
• The board did not consistently adhere to state law when licensing pilots. In one case, it licensed a pilot 28 days before he received a required physical examination; he piloted vessels 18 times during this period.
• The board renewed some pilots' licenses even though the pilots had received physical examinations from physicians the board had not appointed and, in one case, renewed a license for a pilot who had not had a physical examination that year.
• Of the 24 investigations the state reviewed, 17 went beyond the 90-day statutory deadline for completion.
• The board did not investigate reports of suspected safety standard violations of pilot boarding equipment, as required by law.
• The board failed to ensure that all pilots completed required training within specified time frames.
• The board did not ensure that some of its members and investigators filed required statements of economic interests.
• The board did not approve several changes to the rates pilots charge for their services, as required by law.

You can view the entire Bureau of State Audits' report at www.bsa.ca.gov.


FOR THE RECORD: In the Tuesday, Dec. 1, PMM Online, a headline regarding a state of California report critical of the state board that governs the Bay Area bar pilots incorrectly described the contents of the article.

The headline should have read "State Report Finds Bay Area Pilots' Board Still Missing Mark."

As stated in the article, the Bureau of State Audits report criticized certain actions and inactions by the California Board of Pilot Commissioners for San Francisco, San Pablo and Suisun Bays. The report did not investigate or find fault with the individual licensed pilots regulated by the pilots' board. We regret if the incorrect headline implied otherwise.

CARB Extends Statewide Drayage Truck Ban for a Few

Good news and bad news from the state of California regarding the impending January 1, 2010 statewide ban of older diesel drayage trucks.

The good news is that the California Air Resources Board has extended the ban start date to April 30, 2010.

The bad news is that the extension only applies to a very small number of truck owners– namely those that have already been approved for state grants to retrofit their trucks but have not yet received the funds from the state.

Truckers throughout the state have been petitioning Sacramento to extend the deadline, which threatens to idle thousands of port-servicing trucks as of Jan. 1, 2010. CARB is instituting the ban in an effort to dramatically cut diesel emissions throughout the state.

The new CARB extension will allow trucks pre-approved for retrofit or upgrade funds to continue operating in the ports and rail yards until the funds are made available or April 30, 2010, whichever comes first. CARB will be offering stickers to trucks that fit the extension criteria.

These include:

• The truck is approved for air quality incentive funding administered by the air districts in the South Coast, Bay Area, San Joaquin Valley, San Diego, Imperial or Port of Long Beach under a Proposition 1B truck retrofit or replacement grant, or
• The truck is approved for air quality incentive funding administered by the air districts in the South Coast or Bay Area or the Port of Long Beach, operating under a related non-Proposition 1B drayage truck incentive program for scrappage and replacement with a diesel or alternative fuel truck meeting 2007 emission levels or retrofitted with a CARB-verified level 3 PM filter, or
• The truck is covered by an incentive program contract that was fully executed by Dec. 4, 2009, or
• The incentive applicant has been notified in writing by an air district or port that the specific truck has been selected for funding after a successful pre-inspection and compliance check and the applicant submitted a valid purchase order to the local agency by Dec. 4, 2009.

Last month, more than 1,000 drayage truckers in the Bay Area were notified that their applications for state funding were denied after the $22 million in set-aside state funds for retrofits and upgrades ran out. None of these denied applicants would be eligible for the new CARB extension and will be banned from entering ports and rail yards on Jan. 1, 2010.

Hueneme Port Autos Flat Through 2012

The niche Port of Hueneme, which for nearly twenty years has been the final resting place of breakbulk customers shooed away by the container-centric Southern California ports, is now facing the full sting of the global economic downturn.

During the annual "state of the port" presentation made Monday, officials forecast that the port's all-important automobile import sector is not likely to pick up until 2012 or 2013.

Despite this, the president of the port's harbor commission remains confident that the turnaround will come.

“Obviously, I can’t look into a crystal ball,” said commission president Jesse Ramirez. “But by all indicators, by 2012 we’ll be looking pretty good.”

Ramirez said that despite some quarterly increases in business at the port over the past year, the numbers for the entire fiscal year still remain down more than 20 percent over year-ago period. In addition, the port is projecting that cargo volumes will remain stagnant through 2012, with any hopes of an increase coming after this period.

And for Hueneme, lost cargo volumes are lost revenues as the port makes its money on charges based on the tonnage weight of cargo.

While produce such as bananas and pineapples, another staple of Hueneme's business, has remained fairly strong during the auto sector collapse, port officials can not help but point to the fact that cars bring in a much higher level of revenue. For example, a ton of bananas will generate about $4.50 a ton in revenue for the port, while a ton of automobiles will generate $22 for the port.

All told, the port reported a more than 10 percent drop off in total revenue for the 2008-2009 fiscal year.

Guam Port Misuse Saga Continues

Like The Godfather’s Michael Corleone lamenting that he keeps being pulled back into his criminal past, the Port Authority of Guam can not seem to get away from the Guam Shipyard misuse incident.

Despite PAG offering last week what it considered the last word on the subject, namely that all cargo will move through the island under the auspices of PAG as Guam law states or face legal action, the firm at the root of the shipyard incident is now challenging nearly $1 million in fees levied against it by PAG over the misuse.

Watts Constructors, which has used the Guam Shipyard to load several shipments of cargo and thus circumvented the PAG-controlled commercial port, now claims that the PAG-imposed penalties are unfair and that the firm was forced to use the shipyard because the normal port facilities could not handle the shipment.

"We understand that the Port wants to be the exclusive commercial port on Guam," said a Watts Constructors' news release. "However, as it stands now and as our situation shows, the Port is simply not yet equipped to handle the full range of cargo moving on and off the island today."

Guam law states that all cargo moving on and off the island must be handled by the PAG-controlled commercial port. However, the port has struggled in recent years to upgrade the facilities, including several failed attempts to replace decades-old cranes.

After learning of the shipyard misuse, PAG required Watts to pay fees to the port for the illegal shipment. The state government also fined the shipping agent involved.

Watts is now arguing that Guam law does not support the PAG's position in imposing those charges.

"The Port had neither the capacity nor capability to handle the load-out operations for the second voyage bound for Pearl Harbor," said the Watts release. "Thus, Watts Constructors used the Guam Shipyard Facility to load the remaining Navy cargo onto its vessel."