Georgia in two courts over Savannah River terminal plan

CHARLESTON, S.C. - The Georgia Transportation Department has gone to court on both sides of the Savannah River to block development of a $450 million steamship terminal on land it owns on the South Carolina side of the water.

A suit filed in federal court in Savannah, Ga., asks a judge to permanently block any condemnation of the 1,800-acre site, which is used by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to dump silt dredged from the Savannah River shipping channel.

Building the terminal on the land "will frustrate the congressional mandate to the corps to maintain navigability ... for commerce and national defense," said an amended complaint filed last week.

It argues that using South Carolina common law and condemnation statutes to take title to the property is pre-empted by federal law.

The Georgia agency has also sued in state court in South Carolina arguing that condemning the property for the terminal will benefit a private terminal operator, not the public.

The department sued four years ago in the same dispute using the same argument.

That suit was brought in state court but there was an attempt at the time to move it to federal court in Charleston. The federal judge, however, remanded the case to court in Jasper County.

Eventually, the South Carolina Supreme Court ruled the land could not be condemned by the county for private use.

The county now plans to retain ownership of the land but allow SSA Marine to manage the terminal.

The property is one of 14 sites on the river used as a dredge spoils area. The federal government has easements on the land and would have to release them before there could be any development of the site.

"They're trying to take Georgia's property without going through the appropriate analysis to see if they can use that property," said Richard Bybee, the Charleston attorney representing Georgia.

But the county can't get permits or get the corps to consider releasing the easements until it owns the land, county officials say.

"The Corps won't talk to anybody except the person who owns the property," said Rose Dobson, Jasper County's deputy administrator for economic development and planning.

The terminal would ultimately need about 4 percent of the site's spoils area, Dobson said.

It's not the only court action involving the site.

The South Carolina State Ports Authority, which also wants to develop a terminal there, has asked the South Carolina Supreme Court for a ruling that the authority, not the county, has the right to develop the site.