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March 1, 2001 Editor Portland Business Journal 851 SW Sixth Portland, OR 97204 Dear Editor: Recent news coverage in the Business Journal has challenged the conventional wisdom that deepening the Columbia River navigation channel is critical to the economy of this region and an indispensable factor in retaining regular service to our community by global marine cargo carriers. Conversations I was able to have with the top management of many of these steamship lines while I was still serving in the Senate, left me with the clear impression that channel depth is a prime factor in their decisions about which ports to serve. Let me explain, In 1996, 1 traveled with a port delegation to meet with the highest levels of management of the Evergreen, Yangming, Hanjin, and Hyundai companies at their respective headquarters in Taiwan and Korea. In every meeting, without being asked, the leaders of these steamship lines told us their companies were moving to larger ships than the Columbia River navigation channel could accommodate fully loaded. In each meeting, we were asked about the status of the channel deepening effort and told that timely completion of the deepening would be a critical factor in their future decisions about Portland as a port of call for their ships. Remembering these discussions, I was not surprised to read recently that Evergreen has decided to discontinue service in Portland. Evergreen has, to a significant degree, implemented the shift to much larger vessels, as they predicted in 1996. Many factors other than channel depth no doubt played into Evergreen's decision at this time. But the inability to reduce costs per unit of output by utilizing the full capacity of Evergreen's most efficient vessels in their calls on Portland surely compounded whatever other negative factors it had to consider. I have been and remain a strong supporter of the channel deepening project. While I do not find the arguments of opponents persuasive, some of those arguments are at least logical and based on plausible interpretations of facts. But the arguments that channel deepening is riot critical to retaining marine cargo service or not critical to maintaining the number and quality of jobs we have in the Oregon and Southwest Washington area are patently contrary to common sense and recent history at other ports. (The Port of Oakland’s experience with the American Presidents Line Steamship Company is a case in point.) In short, in my mind, the need for a deeper Columbia River navigation channel is evident and urgent, and arguing about need is just spinning wheels. At the same time, I believe the momentum this economic need creates can be used to achieve environmental enhancements including ecosystem and estuary restoration in the lower Columbia River area and the protection of our region's livability. It's time to focus our creative energy on enhancing the unique resources of the Columbia River to achieve both environmental and economic benefits. Sincerely yours, Mark O. Hatfield
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