COLUMBIA -- The Water Law Review Committee is expected to recommend two state agencies continue to play the key role in determining water policy between South Carolina and North Carolina.

The committee, formed by Gov. Mark Sanford, says the agencies are playing a key role in the relicensing process for five dams in North Carolina, which control the flow of water into the Great Pee Dee River. And because of that role this is where the state's focus should continue to be.

The state Department of Natural Resources and the Department of Health and Environmental Control are both negotiating with North Carolina and federal officials to ensure an adequate flow to the Pee Dee.

The dams on the Yadkin River in North Carolina are up for relicensing by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in 2006.

The relicensing issue took on added urgency in 2002, when a severe, five-year drought reduced the Pee Dee to a shallow stream.

Some North Carolina officials have argued that South Carolina agencies, in particular DNR, should not be involved in the relicensing negotiations. The agency has argued that minimum flows of water from the Yadkin River reservoirs are needed to protect aquatic life and to prevent salt water intrusion into the rivers near Georgetown.

"They question whether FERC should be concerned about salt water intrusion," Hank Stallworth, a DNR spokesman, said at Tuesday's meeting.

The committee voted to make several recommendations to Sanford regarding water laws in South Carolina, including the recommendation to keep DNR and DHEC involved in the negotiations with North Carolina.

The committee also will recommend to Sanford that he negotiate a water compact between South Carolina and Georgia, to ensure adequate water flow into the state during periods of drought.

State officials have been particularly concerned about the flow of water on the Savannah River and about the consumption of groundwater in Atlanta.

The committee will now begin drafting its final report to Sanford. Complicating the report is the complexity of South Carolina's water laws.

South Carolina operates under a "Reasonable Use" Riparian Law System. The state's original water law came with the early settlers from England and, through the years, common law was the basis for how water quantity problems were resolved.

It has been amended to some degree by both the courts and the General Assembly, but with substantial and ever increasing use and a static supply, changes are necessary.

The governor's committee is made up of members of industry, municipalities, state agencies and legal professionals. The diversity of the group created some concern when it formed about whether it could come to agreement on many issues, but Tuesday's meeting showed agreement from all members on nearly every issue.

"Clearly it's a really diverse group," said Rep. Marty Coates of Florence. "We all have individual interests that we represent, but in the end, what we want to recommend to the governor is a good water law that's good for the entire state."

The governor's Water Law Review Committee will meet in January to review the draft of the governor's recommendations.