RIDGELAND -- State Sen. Clementa Pinckney says he doubts that the S.C. State Ports Authority will build a Jasper County port expediently and he stands behind a proposed county-owned shipping terminal.

After a Ports Authority subcommittee meeting Thursday in Columbia, the Ridgeland Democrat said the authority doesn't have a solid plan and that the county has the best shot at realizing a deep-water shipping port sooner rather than later.

The subcommittee was formed as an offshoot of the state Senate's Finance Committee late last month as questions circulated about port operations in Charleston and Jasper County Council announced an exclusive agreement with SSA Marine to build a county-owned shipping terminal.

"The seed has been sown, the crops have been planted and we're ready to harvest the deal, and someone is coming in to reap that harvest," Pinckney said after the meeting. "The State Ports Authority wants houses they have not built and crops they have not sown."

Jasper County officials have worked to bring a $450 million port to their side of the Savannah River for more than a decade. They signed a three-part plan with SSA Marine, the stevedoring firm that would operate the port, on Jan. 7.

In response, the State Ports Authority filed a declaratory lawsuit in the S.C. Supreme Court seeking judgment that it has the sole or superior right to develop a port on the Savannah River.

On Thursday, Pinckney demanded that the authority state its intentions. Ports Authority executive director Bernard Groseclose discussed harbor-deepening and expansions in Charleston and the authority's plan of action in Jasper County, but without a clear timeline, Pinckney said.

"They said (a Jasper port) will help the Ports Authority meet capacity demand in the future," the senator said. "I asked for a timeline, and they could not answer. I asked him five years, 10 years, 20 years, and each time they could not answer."

Subcommittee chairman Harvey Peeler, R-Cherokee, said Thursday's assembly was "the first of many meetings. There are certainly other interested parties and the committee, of course, wants to hear from those folks, too."

The state authority started the condemnation of the Georgia-owned land last month but has not completed an appraisal of the site, part of the critical first step in condemnation.

"In comparison with what SSA has shared with us in the past, (the State Ports Authority plan) is very disappointing," Pinckney said. "I feel pretty good about the progress and the relationship the administrator and County Council have with SSA."