A new skirmish in the battle for control of the Jasper port project broke out Wednesday as Jasper County officials questioned the legality of an S.C. State Ports Authority contract for work at the port site.

The Ports Authority announced Tuesday it had awarded a $330,000 contract to S&ME Inc. for analysis of soil data collected at the Savannah River site eyed for a future port.

In an internal e-mail obtained by The Gazette, a Ports Authority official said S&ME, a Raleigh, N.C.-based company, won the contract because of the large amount of data it already had on the port site -- data the company was willing to give the authority at no cost.

That data were collected several years ago by S&ME, then working under an approximately $200,000 contract with SSA Marine, SSA Vice President Jake Coakley said.

SSA last year contracted with Jasper County to build the port, placing itself squarely on the county's side of an unresolved legal battle with the Ports Authority for control of the project, which could cost $600 million and create an estimated 90,000 jobs.

"That's our data," Coakley said. "It doesn't belong to them."

Jasper County Council Chairman George Hood echoed concerns about the data being given to the Ports Authority.

"Usually if you contract out for work, that contractor can't just give the work to somebody else," he said. "I don't understand what legal grounds they are operating on."

Jasper County Administrator Andrew Fulghum said he believed the contract could constitute an "unethical business practice" by S&ME.

Messages left Wednesday at the Charleston branch of S&ME were not returned.

But Ports Authority spokesman Byron Miller said the contract was legal.

"They assured us the field work was their own," he said, referring to S&ME. "Regardless of who they provided it for, it belongs to them."

Miller said the analysis of that field work was a "different matter" and that the $330,000 contract would pay for a new analysis of the work, as well as some additional field work.

Miller said he was mystified by the county's criticism of the contract.

"Do they not want a port now?" he said. "Who wouldn't want the work done quickly and cost effectively?"

Jasper officials have said they decided to pursue the private port deal out of frustration with years of delays and empty promises by the Ports Authority and in the belief the authority did not intend to build the Jasper Port.

The Ports Authority budgeted $1.6 million this year for the soil analysis. Miller said earlier this summer that the authority was aware of the previous work at the site but said it was inadequate and more work was required.

However, the e-mail obtained by The Gazette indicates that the authority found the existing data largely adequate.

"We were very surprised at the magnitude of data and to what extent the work mirrors our requirements," the e-mail from Ports Authority Senior Project Manager David Smith states.

That e-mail states that S&ME would provide its existing data on the site to the authority at no cost.

Miller said he could not confirm the authenticity of the e-mail but said it accurately reflected the authority's views.

He said the remainder of the $1.6 million originally budgeted for the work will be available if additional work becomes necessary.

This is not the first time the Ports Authority has appropriated resources used by SSA and the county. South Carolina law firm Nelson Mullins Riley and Scarborough spent more than three years working with SSA before arguing in a 2005 S.C. Supreme Court case on behalf of the Ports Authority and its sole right to operate ports in the state.