CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) - Attorneys for Jasper County want a federal judge to throw out a challenge to the county's condemnation of land for a steamship terminal, saying the case was brought in the wrong court on the wrong side of the Savannah River.

"This action is a local action and must be litigated in a South Carolina court," said a motion filed this week in federal court in Savannah, Ga.

The Georgia Transportation Department earlier asked the federal court to permanently block any condemnation of an 1,800-acre site on the South Carolina side of the water.

The department owns the property but the county wants it for a $450 million steamship terminal.

The department's suit "is an improper attempt to litigate a local matter in a different state," said the motion filed by attorneys Wiley Wasden and Peter Giusti of Savannah. "South Carolina has adequate judicial procedures for consideration of the parties' competing interests."

The motion also argues the federal court lacks jurisdiction over the dispute.

The Department of Transportation sued in federal court in Savannah because the site is used by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to dump silt dredged from the Savannah River shipping channel.

Building the terminal on the land "will frustrate the congressional mandate to the corps to maintain navigability ... for commerce and national defense," the department's complaint said.

It added that using South Carolina common law and condemnation statutes to take title to the property is pre-empted by federal law.

"This argument fails because, among other things, the focus of GDOT's contractual allegations are centered in South Carolina," said the reply filed this week. "All allegations concerning the defendants relate to the filing of a condemnation notice in South Carolina to condemn land in South Carolina."

It said the federal court has no personal jurisdiction over the defendants because "these claims neither arise out of nor result from any actions by the defendants in Georgia."

The Department of Transportation also has sued in Circuit Court in South Carolina arguing that condemning the property for the terminal will benefit a private terminal operator, not the public.

The county plans to retain ownership of the land but allow SSA Marine to manage the terminal.

The South Carolina State Ports Authority also is interested in the property. The authority has asked the South Carolina Supreme Court for a ruling that it, not the county, has the right to develop a terminal at the site.