The Port of Seattle will receive $5.3 million in federal port security grants from a total of $18 million in grants secured by Sen. Patty Murray for Washington state ports.
The money is meant for improvements to physical port security such as gates, lighting, access controls, chemical and bomb sensors, and training and exercises, Murray's office said.
Other recipients around the Port of Seattle are Olympic Tug, Crowley Liner Services, American President Lines and Alaska Railroad Corp., bringing a total of $5.6 million in investment in the immediate Seattle area.
But the largest recipient of the funds was the Port of Tacoma, which will receive $11.6 million as part of the package. The Port of Tacoma is planning to be able to handle 10 million TEUs per year (a TEU is 20-foot equivalent unit, the standard measure of container volume), compared with the land-starved Port of Seattle's eventual goal of 4 million TEUs. Both ports handled about 2.1 million TEUs last year.
Tacoma's goal was furthered by last week's announcement that SSA Marine, the largest U.S.-owned terminal operator, would design and build a $300 million, 180-acre terminal along the eastern shore of Blair Waterway where the Puyallup Tribe's casino operations once stood.
The terminal will be the port's largest, and the only one it does not own.
The ports of Vancouver, Longview and Grays Harbor are also receiving $935,000 between the three of them after they failed to receive any such money in 2006.
The money is part of a nationwide distribution of about $210 million secured last year with Congress' approval of an appropriations bill; it has no relation to $295 million in additional funding to support the SAFE Ports Act co-sponsored by Murray, D-Wash., and signed into law last October by President Bush.
The future of that funding, which was placed in the Senate's supplemental spending bill, is uncertain after Bush vetoed the bill because of its call for a timeline for withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.
The money is meant for improvements to physical port security such as gates, lighting, access controls, chemical and bomb sensors, and training and exercises, Murray's office said.
Other recipients around the Port of Seattle are Olympic Tug, Crowley Liner Services, American President Lines and Alaska Railroad Corp., bringing a total of $5.6 million in investment in the immediate Seattle area.
But the largest recipient of the funds was the Port of Tacoma, which will receive $11.6 million as part of the package. The Port of Tacoma is planning to be able to handle 10 million TEUs per year (a TEU is 20-foot equivalent unit, the standard measure of container volume), compared with the land-starved Port of Seattle's eventual goal of 4 million TEUs. Both ports handled about 2.1 million TEUs last year.
Tacoma's goal was furthered by last week's announcement that SSA Marine, the largest U.S.-owned terminal operator, would design and build a $300 million, 180-acre terminal along the eastern shore of Blair Waterway where the Puyallup Tribe's casino operations once stood.
The terminal will be the port's largest, and the only one it does not own.
The ports of Vancouver, Longview and Grays Harbor are also receiving $935,000 between the three of them after they failed to receive any such money in 2006.
The money is part of a nationwide distribution of about $210 million secured last year with Congress' approval of an appropriations bill; it has no relation to $295 million in additional funding to support the SAFE Ports Act co-sponsored by Murray, D-Wash., and signed into law last October by President Bush.
The future of that funding, which was placed in the Senate's supplemental spending bill, is uncertain after Bush vetoed the bill because of its call for a timeline for withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.