About > News> NH project: Cargo can be secured inexpensively

by SHAWNE K. WICKHAM
Union Leader Staff
September 10, 2006

What if you could rig "smart" cargo containers to secretly alert law enforcement officials if someone tried to smuggle a chemical, biological or radiological weapon inside?

New Hampshire officials involved in the Canada/United States Cargo Security Project (CUSCSP) -- a grassroots partnership that evolved into an international coalition after the 9/11 attacks -- say a recent series of tests here proves it can be done, and at a cost that won't cripple shippers or strap consumers.

The group will present its results at a symposium on cargo security in Manchester this Thursday. Vice Admiral Viven S. Crea, vice commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard, will present the keynote address, and other federal, state and Canadian officials will serve on panels addressing the latest progress towards port and cargo security.

William Dunlop is a senior scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, which developed the prototype sensor and monitoring technology used in last winter's tests, including one that tracked a trans-Atlantic shipment from Germany to Londonderry. "What we've demonstrated is yes, it can be done," he told the Sunday News.

Dunlop estimates it would take a year or two to bring a viable system to market -- and perhaps a decade to outfit the estimated 20 million containers that transport goods around the world. Ultimately, he said, "What we'd like to see is the concept of smart containers goes to industry and the commercial sector embraces it."

Whether that ever happens is far from certain.

Dale Ferriere, a U.S. Coast Guard Reserve commander, is deputy director of the National Infrastructure Institute's Center for Infrastructure Expertise in Portsmouth, which administers the CUSCSP. He contends it would take a "change of culture" for government and industry to embrace the technological and institutional changes it would take to safeguard global shipping lanes.

Ferriere compares it to how the oil industry, after years of "incremental" improvements in environmental protection, was held strictly liable for oil pollution after the infamous Exxon Valdez spill in 1989. He wonders what it would take to spark similar public outrage about the security of the international cargo shipping industry.

"Can't we learn from history? What is needed to get that pro-active shift, that cultural paradigm shift? What is needed? Is it an attack? I hope not."

Ferriere said project leaders envision incorporating the data from sensors built into cargo containers into the existing systems shipmasters use to relay information about their crew and cargo manifests to customs officials before they enter the U.S.

"What you really want to know is the two or three that are not reading what they're supposed to be," he said.

Ray Gagnon, a former U.S. marshal for New Hampshire and one of the founders of the Canada/US partnership, said the threat of what could happen goes beyond port security, into the very heartland of America. "You can come into the port of New Orleans and put your container on a barge and ship it up to Pittsburgh...A ship can be loaded today in Montreal and in 72 hours it can be in downtown St. Louis. That's reality."

Gagnon calls the technology developed by the Livermore scientists and successfully tested here in New England "one more tool in the toolbox." And he said the scientists estimated such sensors could be installed at a cost of between $50 and $100 per container. "That's affordable," he said.

But a Montreal shipping expert who works with the regional group contends it would "misguided" to believe that technology alone can address the problem.

Norman Loiseau was the director of regulatory compliance for C.P. Ships, a Canadian transportation conglomerate that participated in the pilot testing back in November, 2001, and again in the latest series of tests last winter.

Now a private consultant, Loiseau said he is impressed with the cooperation among state and provincial officials, law enforcement and his own industry representatives involved with the CUSCSP. But he said it's a "quantum leap" to apply what they have learned to the millions of containers that come into North America every year.

"What the program pointed out was that even if we did get an alarm off the container, we didn't have a process in place so that we'd know what to do with it," he said. "The technology was never, in my mind, the issue...The problem was the infrastructure that was in place to deal with this."

Donald Bliss, director of the Center for Infrastructure Expertise, said the next round of the project will focus on developing protocols for law enforcement and the shipping industry to deal with an alert that does come in about a potentially dangerous shipment. He said Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., helped secure federal funding for that effort.

Gregg, who chairs the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security, last week said the regional initiative is part of the multi-faceted effort it will take to protect the nation post-9/11. "We must continue to take all necessary steps, including shoring up our borders, strengthening port and travel security, and continuing to improve our intelligence capabilities so we can find the terrorists before they can harm us," Gregg said.

Loiseau said the very improvements that have streamlined international shipping have also provided terrorists a more efficient means to secretly ship a weapon into this country.

"I think the risk is low, but the consequences are astronomical. You only need one nuclear device in a container delivered into the Port of New York to cause an absolute catastrophe."

But he said he's not optimistic the right people will pay attention to what the CUSCSP is trying to do -- "simply because nobody may want to hear what's being said."

"Nobody wants to hear the truth. Nobody wants to know the emporer doesn't have any clothes on, and that's the problem."

Read Article at Union Leader website