Two Lowcountry legislators have co-sponsored a bill that would form a deep-water port partnership with Georgia.

"We've been working on something like this for a long time, and now we're working with our colleagues in Georgia to get something moving," said Hilton Head Island Sen. Scott Richardson. "If we can come together and stop competing so ferociously, both states and our ports will benefit."

Richardson and co-sponsor Sen. Clementa Pinckney said they don't think the partnership with Georgia will jeopardize a port proposal in Jasper County.

Jasper County is working closely with Stevedoring Services of America, a private Seattle-based company, to develop a $450 million deep-water port terminal on a portion of 1,776 acres of land that the county is trying to condemn.

The land, on the Savannah River several miles closer to the Atlantic Ocean than the Georgia Ports Authority's Garden City container cargo terminals, is owned by Georgia's Department of Transportation.

The South Carolina Supreme Court on May 13 is to hear the Georgia agency's appeal of the condemnation as approved by Circuit Court Judge Perry Buckner last year.

The proposal for the Jasper port is still a go, pending the Supreme Court's hearing and decision, said Stevedoring Services of America regional vice president Jake Coakley.

The Richardson-Pinckney port bill says there would be "certain benefits to be realized by both states sharing information regarding a proposed port operation on both the north and south sides of the Savannah River."

If Georgia and South Carolina pooled their resources, "environmental factors affected by the river deepening" for harbor maintenance could be minimized, according to the bill.

But Jasper County Administrator Henry Moss questions whether the states will agree to work together.

"We tried three years ago to get the two states to work together on a port in Jasper County," Moss said. "Nobody wanted to play."

If the bill is approved, Richardson said he thinks Gov. Mark Sanford will be supportive and work with Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue to begin setting up a bilateral commission to study the idea.

The study will include estimating the costs and financial arrangements for setting up an interstate port authority for the Savannah River, Richardson said.