COLUMBIA -- A Jasper-run cargo container terminal on the Savannah River would raise a dangerous statewide precedent, attorneys for the S.C. State Ports Authority argued Tuesday in the state Supreme Court, while county attorneys said the state lacks the right to block the project.

The State Ports Authority filed suit against the county in January, when Jasper reached an $450 million development agreement with SSA Marine, one of the world's largest stevedoring and port building companies.

Mitch Brown, the State Ports Authority's attorney from the firm Nelson Mullins Riley and Scarborough, opened Tuesday's case by invoking the one Savannah River shipping interest not in the courtroom Tuesday. "Georgia essentially would like to keep the property as a trash dump," he told the five Supreme Court justices.

The Georgia Department of Transportation owns the 1,863-acre site in Jasper County, which is used to dump sediment from Savannah River dredging. Either government entity that wins the Supreme Court decision most certainly faces a messy condemnation battle with Georgia.

"Georgia has publicly stated they'd fight to the death," Brown told the court.

He argued that the Ports Authority has a better chance at negotiating with Georgia or winning a condemnation battle and that Jasper was impeding the state's progress.

"We would like to look and see if there's a possibility for an interstate port of joint ports authority," he told the court, after mentioning Republican party unity between the two governors and legislatures.

Jasper attorneys said the Ports Authority argument for condemnation was moot as the agency hasn't filed the notice with Georgia.

"You can't condemn it, because we might condemn it," Camden Lewis, Jasper's attorney characterized the state's argument. "It's like the highway department saying they might put a road here, so you can't build."

Jasper filed a notice of condemnation against Georgia on Jan. 19, just hours before the State Ports Authority filed the high court suit against Jasper.

Jasper attorneys argued that under the Home Rule Act, which grants counties and municipalities an expansive list of powers, they can develop a terminal because the State Ports Authority had neglected the project for so long.

Ports Authority attorneys said that violates the statewide uniformity of port operations -- the Ports Authority runs terminals in Charleston, Georgetown and Port Royal.

"You keep talking about Jasper County as impeding, but they've been trying to get this thing for 10 years," Justice James E. Moore said of the Ports Authority's argument. "Now you have a dog in the fight?"

Ports Authority attorneys conceded that the circumstances surrounding Charleston capacity and the failure to build a Daniel Island terminal, which the General Assembly took off the table in 2002, had altered the Ports Authority's interest in the fight.

"The framers of the South Carolina constitution said public highways that traverse multiple county borders" are exempt from Home Rule as a feature of statewide unity, Brown said. "That's what the Savannah River is, a common highway."

But no where is the State Ports Authority jurisdiction over maritime trade deemed "exclusive" in the S.C. Code of Laws.

"Similar to the highway case, along the highway are all kinds of stations," Lewis told the court. "The highway department has no right to those stations. No one's saying the state doesn't control the river."

At several points during both sides' arguments, Chief Justice Jean Hoefer Toal, disparaged Jasper's new development agreement with SSA Marine: "It seems just as much a giveaway to a private company as it did before, but that's for another day," she said.

Jasper lost its first attempt to condemn the Georgia-owned port site in September 2003 when the Supreme Court ruled the then 99-year lease agreement with SSA Marine resulted in taking public land for a private business.

A ruling on the latest case could come as late as December.

On Tuesday Toal questioned how private a Jasper-run port would be: "Will everyone have access to the port?"

"Absolutely," Lewis said. "It will be more like the ones who bring in those 40-foot boxes. But that's not the question. The question here is 'exclusivity.'"

The chief justice asked what prevented the State Ports Authority from taking the port site if Jasper landed a successful condemnation. The agency has the power of super condemnation, where it can take public, as well as private, land under eminent domain.

Lewis cited the U.S. Shipping Act, which regulates waterborne and international commerce, including condemnation for maritime industry, which does not allow condemnation to lessen competition.

"The condemnation power is not the issue, because they haven't condemned," he said.

Lewis called the Ports Authority's invocation of Georgia "scare tactics."

"Our attorneys did a fine job of keeping the argument on the point," Jasper County Administrator Andrew Fulghum said on the steps of the Supreme Court after the case. "It's sad we have to be here, but it seems the (State Ports Authority) will go to any length to stop this project."

Justice Costa M. Pleicones recused himself of the case and was replaced by Justice John Few of the 13th Circuit Court. Unlike the federal Supreme Court, South Carolina tradition calls for a temporary "acting associate justice" whenever a Justice cannot attend, whether for illness, a conflict of interest or other circumstances.

Pleicones was a former partner in Lewis, Babcock and Hawkins, the Columbia-based firm that represented Jasper County. The justice steps down whenever the firm argues before the high court.

"We appreciate the judges hearing the case and we look forward to hearing the

ruling," said Harry Butler, chairman of the Port Authority's board of directors.

Almost 40 Jasper officials and residents boarded a bus chartered by the county at 6 a.m. in Ridgeland and spilled into the high court lobby at 9 a.m. for the 9:30 argument. An hour later, after the hearing, Jasper attorney Keith Babcock briefed the group on what transpired.

Rep. Thayer Rivers, D-Jasper, a staunch supporter of the Jasper plan, was the only General Assembly member in the packed court room.

"I'm concerned with Justice Toal's second line of reasoning," he said after the case. "It appears she doesn't like our second contract with SSA, but that's not the issue before her, so theoretically it shouldn't matter."

George Hood, chairman of the Jasper County Council, said there is room to negotiate the terms with SSA Marine.

"We are willing to negotiate when it comes to a workable plan," he said of Toal's remarks. "But I feel good. I'm always the optimist. I thought our attorneys did a good job with the issue."