Gov. Mark Sanford and Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue will meet Monday afternoon at the site of a long-proposed -- and much-disputed -- Jasper port to announce that the two states will run the facility together, several sources with knowledge of the agreement told The State on Sunday.
The governors will appear together at 2 p.m., said Jim Lientz, Perdue's chief operating officer.
A Sanford spokesman declined comment.
Last week, Sanford confirmed to The State that he and Perdue had discussed development of a Jasper County port. Discussions included the possible creation of a ports authority jointly operated by South Carolina and Georgia.
The 1,800-acre site on the S.C. side of the Savannah River has been the scene of a three-way turf battle for years.
Jasper County struck a deal to develop a port with a private developer in January 2005, but that plan has been on hold since both the S.C. State Ports Authority and Georgia challenged the county's claim to the land in the past two years.
In January, a judge ruled the S.C. Ports Authority has first rights to condemn the land, which Georgia owns and uses as a dump site for material dredged from the river.
A bill proposed last month in the S.C. House would give the S.C. Ports Authority exclusive rights to build a Jasper County port for three years, but Georgia still is fighting the condemnation.
An agreement between Georgia and South Carolina could end the legal wrangling once and for all.
Business leaders from both states have pushed their elected leaders for years to work together to develop a regional port operation on the Savannah River as a way of breaching the years-long impasse over who would control a new port.
Jasper County "wants to see something built sooner rather than later," said Sen. Clementa Pinckney, D-Jasper. He said any agreement must include money to pay for the new port's infrastructure, such as roads and rail.
