For the people who account for an estimated 20 million border crossings a year between Washington state and British Columbia, it’s an uneventful process.

No expense. Not much time, usually. Minimal inconvenience.

That’s changing, however. In a post-Sept. 11 world, where terrorist threats have touched off universal jitters, international borders are points of anxiety. Even the good-neighbor boundary between the United States and Canada.

Hence the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, a postponed but impending requirement that passports be used where driver’s licenses and comparable ID used to suffice.

As state and provincial authorities recognize, however, the new rules will pose a significant obstacle to the vast population of Washingtonians and British Columbians who now enjoy relatively easy passage back and forth.

That is why Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire has come up with an alternative. She’s asking the federal government to OK a pilot project aimed at achieving border security without imposing the burdens now called for.

She suggests, and British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell concurs, that border agents rely on high-tech scanners to check driver’s licenses rather than demand passports. She is asking the Department of Homeland Security to authorize a three-month test.

That’s a reasonable request. If the scanning system passes the test, it means an enormous savings in time and money to regional residents who want to cross the border for business or pleasure.

Only about a fourth of Americans have passports, and they haven’t needed them to venture to Canada or Mexico. But the rules were changed in light of elevated fears about terrorists invading the United States.

As if terrorists were unable to acquire passports.

If the passport requirement goes into effect as scheduled on June 1, 2009 (the original deadline of Jan. 1, 2007, has been extended), Americans who don’t already have passports will have to pay $97 for them – $82 in the case of children. There’s an additional fee for expedited processing if you want to avoid a wait of up to several months.

That all adds up to a significant burden for those who don’t necessarily have long-term international travel plans but do want to take in, say, the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and Whistler, or a hockey game in Nelson, or just take a leisurely drive to Kootenay Lake.

Concerns about border security are valid, and no one is suggesting they be compromised. But Gregoire’s request offers the possibility that the purpose served by passports could be achieved as well by other means, but with less expense and inconvenience.