After a Ports Authority Sub-committee meeting in Columbia, Pinckney said the authority doesn't have a solid plan and that the county has the best shot at realizing a deep-water shipping port sooner rather than later.
The subcommittee was formed as an offshoot of the state Senate's Finance Committee late last month as questions about port operations in Charleston circulated and Jasper County Council announced an exclusive agreement with SSA Marine to build a county-owned shipping terminal.
"The seed has been sown, the crops have been planted and we're ready to harvest the deal, and someone is coming in to reap that harvest," Pinckney said after the meeting. "The State Ports Authority wants houses they have not built and crops they have not sown."
Jasper officials have worked to bring a $450 million port, to be operated by SSA Marine, to their side of the Savannah River for more than a decade and signed a three-part plan with the stevedoring firm Jan. 7.
In response, the State Ports Authority filed a declaratory lawsuit in the S.C. Supreme Court seeking judgment that it has the sole or superior right to develop a port on the Savannah River.
On Thursday, Pinckney demanded that the authority state its intentions. Ports Authority Executive Director Bernard Groseclose discussed harbor-deepening and expansions in Charleston and its plan of action in Jasper County, but without a clear timeline, Pinckney said.
"They said (a Jasper port) will help the Ports Authority meet capacity demand in the future," the senator said. "I asked for a timeline, and they could not answer. I asked him five years, 10 years, 20 years, and each time they could not answer."
Subcommittee Chairman Harvey Peeler, R-Cherokee, said Thursday's meeting will be followed by many more.
"This was the first of many meetings," Peeler said. "There are certainly other interested parties, and the committee, of course, wants to hear from those folks too."
The state authority started the condemnation of the Georgia-owned land last month but has yet to complete an appraisal of the site -- part of the critical first step in condemnation.
"In comparison with what SSA has shared with us in the past, (the State Ports Authority plan) is very disappointing," Pinckney said. "I feel pretty good about the progress and the relationship the administrator and county council have with SSA."