The S.C. State Ports Authority and an environmental group concerned about air quality issues related to the development agreed in early August to end their long-running legal battle over a new, $600 million terminal currently being built in North Charleston.

The S.C. Coastal Conservation League sued the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the ports authority (as intervener defendant) in November 2007 on the grounds that state and federal officials didn’t adequately consider the potential adverse air quality impacts before permitting the new terminal.

The settlement agreement comes after six months of intense negotiations, during which the ports authority had continued work on the terminal, but agreed not to let new contracts until mediation either resulted in a compromise or ended in impasse.

Under the settlement, the ports authority agreed to install and maintain continuous air monitors on the premises of both the new terminal and its existing Wando Welch terminal across Charleston harbor in Mount Pleasant, S.C.

The monitors will be operated in consultation with the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control, with air quality data to be reported on the ports authority Web site.

In addition, the ports authority agreed to commission a truck survey to provide data on the age, distribution and frequency of trucks calling on its terminals.

“The port will ensure the elimination of 85% of regularly calling pre-1994 engine model trucks, defined as those trucks with more than 52 calls per year that transport containers,” the settlement said.

This reduction in older trucks calling the port’s Wando Welch, North Charleston and Columbus Street terminals is mandated to take place by January 1, 2014.

The ports authority also agreed to “encourage” the creation of a new maritime air quality committee under the auspices of the Berkeley-Charleston-Dorchester Council of Governments. Members of the committee will include the port, the League, representatives of state and local governments, as well as the Charleston Metro Chamber of Commerce and American Lung Association.

Also part of the agreement is a commitment by ports authority to help foster the development of an independent intermodal facility to serve the new terminal.

In its original plan for the new terminal, the ports authority had planned to continue to a longstanding system of having containers drayed to nearby intermodal yards operated by the CSX and Norfolk Southern railroads.

 But as the lawsuit wore on, several independent proposals were put forward to improve the terminal’s rail connectivity. The proposals were controversial; not least because the ports authority and the City of North Charleston had long agreed that cargo trains would not exit the north side of the terminal, where they would impact significant community redevelopment projects.

But in late July, North Charleston Mayor Keith Summey formally embraced a proposal that relies on an intermodal yard being placed adjacent the south end of the new terminal, and operated by CSX transportation in collaboration with South Carolina Public Railways.

Under the settlement, the ports authority agreed that should a third party come forward with “a reasonable engineering and business plan for an independent intermodal facility,” it would accommodate the developers with a gate entrance to allow the movement of containers by rail.

In return, the Coastal Conservation League agreed to drop all pending legal actions against the port, including a spate appeal of state permits for the facility that had been pending in South Carolina Supreme Court.