Gov. Mark Sanford has asked a statewide panel to review S.C. water laws and consider whether the state needs to strike long-term deals with its neighbors over how to divide the water resources they share.

"It's something that's critical to getting a hand on, not just from an economic standpoint, but from an environmental and quality-of-life standpoint as well," said Sanford spokesman Will Folks.

The 18-member committee includes Fred Richard, executive director of Grand Strand Water & Sewer Authority, and Florence Mayor Frank Willis, among public officials. The group is a response to the five-year drought that shriveled the state's rivers and forced state officials to plead with N.C. dam operators for enough water to keep S.C. communities functioning.

When the committee meets for the first time this morning at a Department of Natural Resources facility outside Columbia, all options will be considered viable ones, said committee chairman Steven Spitz, a professor at the University of South Carolina Law School. Spitz focuses on property and environmental law and helped draft the state's drought response plan 20 years ago.

"I'm sure we're going to reach consensus, not on what to do, but what to look at," Spitz said. "There are no truly preconceived idea on this."

South Carolina shares its major rivers - the Great Pee Dee, Savannah and Catawba among them - with North Carolina and Georgia.

Duke Power Co., Alcoa Power Generating Inc. and Progress Energy all operate dams on rivers supplying water to South Carolina. Those companies struggled last year to maintain enough water to generate power while ensuring downstream communities didn't go dry.

Resolving the question of who owns the water in those rivers remains the biggest obstacle to managing the state's water resources, said Willis.

"You've got to find a way to resolve that issue," he said, "because if you don't, the folks in North Carolina can just dam up the river and decide what they're going to give us or not give us."

As the Great Pee Dee River shrank last year, Grand Strand water suppliers worried about salt moving up from Winyah Bay contaminating their stocks of fresh water.

The reserves held behind the N.C. dams - though they were released slower than some wanted - actually keep the region stocked with fresh water longer than it might have been without them, said committee member Richardson. Still, the state needs to plan better.

"We never know how bad a drought can get," he said. "No matter what stage you're in, you can always imagine it getting worse."