"For about 90 to 120 days we've been doing our due diligence to bring a port to the Savannah River," authority Chairman Harry Butler said Wednesday.
Under state law, the scope of the Ports Authority includes promotion, development, construction, equipment, maintenance and operation of harbors within the state and on the Savannah River.
That statute governing the powers of the authority has been virtually unchanged since its 1962 inception, said Mark Plowden, spokesman for the S.C. Attorney General's Office.
State officials wouldn't say if the law gives the Ports Authority domain over private or county-owned ports on the river.
"If they had the money and we're working on a project, they'd have that right, but right now they're not working on anything," Rose Dobson, deputy administrator for Jasper County, said Wednesday.
The law outlining the power of the Ports Authority has gone uncontested since the mid '60s, Plowden said.
"I don't envision Jasper building a port without working with the South Carolina Ports Authority," Butler said.
Butler would not comment on negotiations between the Ports Authority and the Georgia Department of Transportation, which owns the 1,863-acre site Jasper wishes to condemn.
Jasper attorney Marvin Jones declined comment on the issue.
In September 2004, Jasper County created its own Port Authority, but the group's role in the project has not yet been defined.
Officials on both sides of the river agree that there is only one usable port site.
"(The Jasper site) is the best port site on the Savannah River," Butler said.
Butler will address the issue at 10 a.m. on Tuesday at the S.C. Ports Authority regular meeting in Charleston.
"We're looking forward to seeing the recommendations of the state's Port Authority," said Will Folks, spokesman for Gov. Mark Sanford. "The governor wants to make sure the competitive advantage we have as a state in respect to with the Port of Charleston is not jeopardized."