Officials spar over devices for screening.

Byline: ED RUSSO The Register-Guard

By year end, travelers and their luggage at the Eugene Airport will be jumping through another hoop to meet new security rules.

In the new routine, the airport will screen every checked-in suitcase or other bag to make sure it doesn't contain explosives. But details remain up in the air, as airport and federal officials squabble over a new configuration for the check-in area.

Security at the nation's airports is supposed to tighten by Dec. 31, when all checked-in luggage gets screened for bombs. Currently, all carry-on luggage is screened by X-ray or an explosive detection device, but only samples of checked-in baggage are checked for explosives. The Transportation Security Administration, the federal agency in charge of airline security, said it will meet the deadline, although a bureaucratic tiff has surfaced in Eugene over where the testing will take place.

Airport and airline managers want checked-in luggage to be screened behind airline ticket counters.

As part of that plan, the counters would have to be moved forward to make room for the screening devices. The TSA wants the inspections to occur in front of the ticket counters, and to keep the counters in place. The TSA plan would mean a new procedure for travelers, one that would require them to haul their luggage a few steps from the check-in counter to the screening machines.

The TSA plan has led Airport Manager Bob Noble to fire off protest letters, while the top local TSA official in Eugene defends his agency's proposal. The dispute has a money angle, as the city-owned airport might have to spend some of its own funds to get the plan it prefers.

Regardless of the outcome, luggage will be handled differently than it is today.

Under TSA's plan, passengers would move to the ticket counter with their luggage, just as they do now. But after receiving boarding passes, passengers would once again pick up their suitcases, and carry them back a few feet to a baggage screening station. Passengers would hand their suitcases to TSA screeners, who would use a cloth to wipe the luggage. The cloth would be passed through a machine the size of a microwave cooker that detects chemicals that can be used to make explosives.

If the cloth does not set off an alarm, TSA personnel will haul the bags to the airline counters. If the detection device sounds an alarm, TSA staff will take the luggage and its owner to another area where the bag will be opened and inspected.

The plan preferred by the airport and airlines would require moving the ticket counters forward about six feet to make room for the explosive detection equipment behind the counters.

Noble opposes screening luggage in front of the ticket counters because tighter security measures put in place following the 2001 terror attacks have already reduced the areas that the public can use in the terminal. Only ticketed passengers, for example, are allowed past the passenger screening checkpoint. During busy times, the front of the terminal becomes filled with travelers and their friends and relatives.

Noble said the TSA's design will absorb more public space than his proposal and force the airport to remove seats in the lobby near the front of the terminal.

The TSA's requirement that passengers step back from the ticket counter with their luggage will disrupt the flow of travelers from ticket counters to boarding gates, he added, and could lead to bottlenecks and long lines.

"People will be lined up out the door," Noble said.

He also said it would be more secure to screen bags behind ticket counters instead of in an area accessible by the public, as the TSA proposes.

Don Barker, the TSA's security director in charge of airports in Eugene, North Bend and Redmond, said Noble's proposal to put the bomb detecting equipment behind ticket counters may be more aesthetically pleasing than the TSA's plan.

However, the TSA's plan "meets the security needs of the airport," Barker said. It also will be quicker to install and much cheaper than airport's plan, he said.

Moving the airline ticket counters, including relocating computers inside cabinets, and buying and setting up four screening stations behind the counters would cost about $165,000, Barker said.

By comparison, TSA's plan to set up four baggage bomb screening stations in front of the counters, including the cost of the equipment, will be about $75,000, he said.

Given that the TSA is spending billions of dollars to hire 50,000 employees nationwide by Nov. 19, and to install baggage screening systems at the nation's 429 commercial airports by Dec. 31, Barker said, the agency is trying to save money where it can.

"Do I build a Lexus or do I build a Camry out here?" he said. "The airport can't expect us to come in here and build the Lexus for them."

With the end-of-the-year deadline fast approaching, Noble still hopes to persuade the TSA to approve his idea.

Barker said once the TSA decides which plan to use, the federal agency will pay for all of it, even if the TSA selects Noble's plan.

However, if the TSA sticks with its plan, which Barker has already approved as adequate, the airport could agree to pay the entire cost of the behind-the-counter layout to get what it wants.

Noble said such a decision is possible, but at this point, he's still hoping TSA agrees to foot the entire bill.

The TSA is installing the equipment to comply with federal mandates, Noble said, so "they ought to bring the additional resources along with it, and not to rely on the airport using its reserves to make those improvements."

CAPTION(S):

PAUL CARTER / The Register-Guard Joyce Cox (left) of Eugene joins more than 40 others Sunday taking the federal oath to become government airport security screeners. STEPHANIE BARROW / The Register-Guard INSIDE Hiring projections lower for screeners at Eugene Airport / 7A