RIDGELAND -- Jasper County officials claim that the S.C. State Ports Authority does not have a plan to build a port in Jasper County and simply is trying to block the rural county's 10-year work in progress.

In a Feb. 8 formal response to a lawsuit filed against the county by the State Ports Authority in the S.C. Supreme Court, Jasper County officials claim that they have the power to build and operate a marine shipping terminal under home rule, and that the Ports Authority "does not have a plan to condemn the land for a proper public use, but instead seeks to condemn the land solely to block Jasper County's construction of a public terminal."

Last Thursday, after a meeting in Columbia by a Ports Authority subcommittee of the Senate Finance Committee, Sen. Clementa Pinckney, D-Ridgeland, said the authority doesn't have a solid plan and that the county has the best shot of realizing a deep-water shipping terminal.

Jasper County officials have been working to bring a port to the rural county for more than a decade and reinvigorated the process Jan. 7, passing a three-part exclusivity agreement with private port developer SSA Marine.

The regional response was swift. The State Ports Authority filed a declaratory lawsuit seeking to define its role as the sole or superior entity for port development in South Carolina and on the Savannah River. Across the river, the Georgia Department of Transportation, which owns the 1,863 acres on the South Carolina bank, refused to sell the land to the county.

Not to be outdone, Jasper County filed a condemnation notice in the Court of Common Pleas a day before Georgia rejected the $8.5 million offer.

The response to the Supreme Court lawsuit also cites a 1986 court decision that states eminent domain may not be used simply to block legitimate public activity.

Despite the legal twists and turns, county officials still want to meet with the state and work out a solution.