The Economics Working Group (EWG) met July 27, 1999. Attending were Morgan Rees, John Snedeker, Dan Parrott, Richard Hill, Jim Morekis, Dave Kyler, Patty McIntosh, and Larry Keegan, Bill Farmer, and this writer, Judy Jennings.

ACTION ITEM:

In an effort to be more educated about general current trends in the maritime industry, the EWG requests approval from the SEG to recommend to GPA that a speaker, Phil Thorpe, with Institute for Water Resources be invited to address the SEG and the public. This request for approval was made after extensive discussion of various options to meet the need for education and current information and consideration of pecuniary fiduciary responsibility.

1. Will the future Savannah fleet mirror the world fleet mix?

2. How the benefits attributed to lightloading were calculated.

3. How to make some subjective or quantitative evaluation of 2nd and 3rd order environmental impacts, particularly through the involvement of other interest groups. D. Kyler will be closely tracking the agenda and positions of the newly created fisheries committee of the SEG to monitor these concerns.

4. A discussion of the quantitative assessment of environmental impacts and whether they are addressed solely through the mitigation plan or through other aspect of B/C analysis.

5 The development of the General Reevaluation Report for the Savannah harbor expansion project. The GRR is required since the original Feasibility Study will soon be more than 3 years old. The GRR includes engineering and economics assessments and cost estimates. It will be developed simultaneously with the Tier II EIS.