COLUMBIA - Two Lowcountry legislators have co-sponsored a bill that would form a deep-water port partnership with Georgia.

"We've been working on something like this for a long time, and now we're working with our colleagues in Georgia to get something moving," said state Sen. Scott Richardson, R-Hilton Head Island.

Richardson and co-sponsor Sen. Clementa Pinckney, D-Ridgeland, said they don't think the partnership with Georgia will jeopardize a port proposal in Jasper County.

Jasper County is working with Stevedoring Services of America, a private Seattle-based company, to develop a $450 million deep-water port terminal on a portion of 1,776 acres of land the county is trying to condemn.

The S.C. Supreme Court on May 13 is to hear the Georgia agency's appeal of the condemnation as approved by Circuit Court Judge Perry Buckner last year.

The proposal for the Jasper port is still a go, pending the Supreme Court's decision, said Jake Coakley, regional vice president of Stevedoring Services of America.

The Richardson-Pinckney port bill says there would be "certain benefits to be realized by both states sharing information regarding a proposed port operation."

If Georgia and South Carolina pooled their resources, "environmental factors affected by the river deepening" for harbor maintenance could be minimized, according to the bill.

But Jasper County Administrator Henry Moss questions whether the states will agree to work together.

"We tried three years ago to get the two states to work together on a port in Jasper County," Moss said. "Nobody wanted to play."

If the bill is approved, Richardson said he thinks Gov. Mark Sanford will work with Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue to begin setting up a bilateral commission to study the idea.