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Georgia ponders new Savannah port

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SAVANNAH -- Georgia officials met in Savannah on Wednesday to craft a plan for a second shipping port on the Savannah River, a move that could result in either a legal war or peaceful partnership with South Carolina.

The discussion was held as Jasper County and the S.C. State Ports Authority await a decision from the S.C. Supreme Court over who has the superior right to build a $600 million cargo container terminal on the South Carolina side of the Savannah River. The county reached a $450 million development agreement with SSA Marine, a private port company, in January.

The Supreme Court, which threw out plans for a Jasper County port in 2003, heard the S.C. State Ports Authority's case against the county in September. The ruling probably will decide who'll battle Georgia in South Carolina and federal courts.

Georgia owns the 1,863-acre proposed port site. In January, hours before the S.C. State Ports Authority sued the county, Jasper County filed a notice of condemnation against Georgia and made an $8.5 million offer to buy the property. Georgia rebuffed the condemnation attempt with a countersuit.

The Jasper Port Study Committee, created by the Georgia General Assembly in May, met for the first time Wednesday and heard from maritime officials and businessmen. Led by state Senate Pro Tem Eric Johnson, R-Savannah, the meeting was held to discuss whether it's possible to build a port on the river and to determine the state's best course of action.

"Businesses are not concerned with state lines," said Mack Mattingly, chairman of the Georgia Ports Authority and a past U.S. senator. "The private sector sees Georgia and South Carolina as a shared resource."

Mattingly emphasized that the Georgia Ports Authority will not take any course of action that could jeopardize the state's deepening of its Savannah port, already under way for six years.

The site being eyed for a Jasper County port is used by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for spoilage from the river's dredging. Sediment from the river is pumped onto South Carolina land, and Georgia Transportation Department officials presented a host of problems with doing it any other way.

Dan Parrott, a corps official, said altering the dredge site could affect the federal easements that control the dredging and the formula for federal funding.

Rick Bybee, special assistant to the Georgia attorney general and a Mount Pleasant lawyer, said there wouldn't be enough capacity to maintain the harbor if Jasper County or South Carolina took control of the dredge site.

Officials with Jasper County and SSA Marine have argued that though the proposed port site represents one-third of the total spoil site, it's only set up to take 7 percent of the spoil over the next 25 years.

On Wednesday, the corps presented a different plan that shows the proposed port site receiving spoil as soon as 2006.

"Maybe all we need to see is Jasper or South Carolina present an alternate spoil site," Johnson said, but emphasized he thought it a matter better solved between the states. "Jasper is really part of the problem."

Jasper County administrator Andrew Fulghum said he wanted to attended the Savannah meeting but was advised against it by legal counsel. The county's position, he said, remains focused on privatization.