Minneapolis has never had the port of its dreams. Its river shipping last year slipped below 700,000 tons, a far cry from the predicted 3 million tons annually that sold Congress on building the St. Anthony lock and dam.

But that's not stopping the city from making plans to spend several million dollars on beefing up riverfront security over the next five years, with federal help. Friday the City Council endorsed spending nearly $1.4 million of that sum.

Although federal port funds are paying the tab, city emergency chief Rocco Forte said the benefits will go beyond preventing terrorist attacks on shipping. Forte said the added security, a command center in Fridley and boat facilities will help the city deal with chemical spills and other river emergencies.

The city so far has gotten nearly $1.7 million, as federal port security spending ballooned to $2.1 billion since 9/11 -- despite the fact that Minneapolis ranked as only Minnesota's eighth-largest port in 2008.

That is four times as much money in the first five years of the federal grant program as the Duluth-Superior harbor, which has a 49-mile waterfront and some 45 million tons of cargo annually. Duluth's grants have jumped recently, however.

Minneapolis also is devoting economic stimulus money to its port security. That is going for such purposes as a river-oriented command center at the city's emergency operations center in Fridley and new boat ramps, Forte said.

An analysis prepared for the city found gaps in the coverage of riverfront cameras, although officials are reluctant to discuss where. But the Army Corps of Engineers already has security measures at the three locks and dams it operates in Minneapolis, a spokeswoman said.

The city's riverfront has only three shipping terminals, despite predictions by city fathers that new industry would sprout there once the upper lock and dam opened in 1963. In fact, the city has long-term plans to shutter its own riverfront terminal at Dowling Avenue, and its contract with the facility's operator ends in four years. Current plans call for the area to be redeveloped with housing and a strip of parks. The city hopes eventually to move out its two remaining shippers -- a scrap yard and a sand-and-gravel operation -- in the redevelopment.

Although Minneapolis lacks enough shipping to crack the most recent list of the nation's top 150 ports compiled by the American Association of Port Authorities, Forte sees a threat.

"We have to consider ourselves a prime target," he said Friday. The director of emergency preparedness said the city's biggest vulnerability comes from youths who have gone overseas and been trained in explosives, as a few Somalis have.

A briefing to local port security officials last year highlighted a danger from boat-borne improvised explosive devices. It listed bridges, power plants, financial institutions and water treatment facilities among the vulnerable facilities. Minneapolis has the Federal Reserve Bank, Riverside power plant and its water intake facilities in Fridley on its riverside.

The University of Minnesota prepared a 109-page analysis for the city of security gaps and potential threats. The university's Will Craig, assistant director of the Center on Urban and Regional Affairs, who had limited involvement with the study, said he has been pushing the city to release a limited version. "Who doesn't know where the Federal Reserve is? I don't know why they have to keep all of this under wraps," he said.

On Friday, the council approved spending the initial $950,000, which will be used to install cameras to fill coverage gaps on the riverfront while another $440,000 will add wireless service under bridges and in other places to make sure images are transmitted from the cameras to security monitors, uninterrupted.

Steve Brandt • 612-673-4438