RIDGELAND -- Jasper County filed a notice of condemnation Wednesday in the county's Circuit Court to acquire 1,863 acres on the Savannah River for a shipping port, the same day the rural county was hit with a lawsuit from the S.C. State Ports Authority in an attempt to block the measure.

The county has been working to bring a port to the area for 10 years and has partnered with SSA Marine, the world's largest port developer, for the last four years.

Jasper County administrator Andrew Fulghum was served with the lawsuit hours after the county filed its condemnation paperwork. Jasper County and the Jasper County Port Authority are named as defendants.

The lawsuit, filed with the S.C. Supreme Court in Columbia, asks the high court to declare Jasper ineligible to build and operate a port on the Savannah River.

Last week Jasper offered to buy the land in question from the Georgia Department of Transportation for $8.5 million. The county, which plans to build a $450 million port on the site, also threatened to start the condemnation process if the issue wasn't resolved by today's Georgia DOT board of directors meeting.

"We have not had contact with the Georgia DOT, and due to yesterday's State Ports Authority decision we decided to move forward," Fulghum said.

The S.C. State Ports Authority's board of directors voted Tuesday to file the lawsuit seeking a judgment from the Supreme Court stating that the Ports Authority has "the predominant authority to build and develop seaports" in South Carolina and on the Savannah River and that "Jasper County does not have such authority." The board also agreed to start its own acquisition process for the tract.

"The fact that the South Carolina Ports Authority is finally beginning to notice the merit of the project is flattering, but will not change our course," Fulghum said in a news release.

Georgia DOT officials were discussing the matter Wednesday night.

"We're still working on it. This is the same thing that happened to us last year, but so far, no decisions have been made," said Peter Hortman, spokesman for Harold Linnenkohl, Georgia's transportation commissioner.

In September 2003, the S.C. Supreme Court ruled against Jasper's first condemnation attempt, stating that a commercially owned and operated port would not meet the required public use -- a fundamental factor for condemnation.

Earlier this month, Jasper County Council approved an exclusive finance, development and management pact with South Atlantic International Terminal, a SSA Marine subsidiary.

The Georgia-owned site on the South Carolina side of the Savannah River is used for U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' dredge spoil from Port of Savannah expansions upriver.

Immediately following the Ports Authority's Tuesday meeting, Georgia DOT was notified that the state authority is accessing the site to perform an appraisal -- the first step in the authority's condemnation process -- according to Ports Authority spokesman Byron Miller.

"(Jasper officials) have expressed frustration with the State Ports Authority in the past," Tom Davis, a Beaufort County representative to the authority board, said Wednesday. "I know how they feel about the Ports Authority, but I ask them to take us on our actions, not our words."