The easy response to the S.C. State Ports Authority would be, "Get lost! You had your chance."

Who could blame leaders in impoverished Jasper County for having that reaction to the State Ports Authority's sudden, aggressive lunge this week at a port idea it has ignored for a decade?

On successive days, the state authority voted to buy the land and sue Jasper County to bump it out of the picture.

The lack of planning on the part of the State Ports Authority is stunning.

But Jasper County cannot simply say, "Get lost."

What the state's move would mean to the Jasper County tax base and to the region needs to be fully explained to the public.

After years of pitching an outside-the-box idea that was too logical to go away, the only partner Jasper County could find was in the private sector. It joined forces with the multinational SSA Marine to build a port on the Savannah River on a site built up by the methodical dumping of dredge spoils. Jasper County eventually created its own county ports authority in its role as largely a pass-through organization for SSA Marine to build a $450 million port.

This week has seen a flurry of lawsuits and condemnation action. It is all made more complicated by the fact that the state of Georgia owns the land and has heretofore shown no interest in quietly letting it be turned into a port so close to its own Savannah port.

The first order of business is for the S.C. Supreme Court to rule on the state Ports Authority's suit claiming the Jasper County ports authority is illegitimate, that only the state has the authority to build and develop ports.

Another basic question is about the dredge spoil. That is Georgia's primary complaint. Georgia says it must have the site to keep its Savannah port viable. Where will that material go if the new port is built?

And the residents of the region need to ask: Who's watching out for the public interest in this? There is more to the equation than the direct economic impact of the new port. Jasper County sorely needs a larger tax base and more jobs. But there would be other impacts on costly public services. And the port's impact on the environment is important to everyone in Jasper and Beaufort counties. Beaufort County learned after approving the development of Sun City Hilton Head just how extensive the ancillary, spinoff impacts are when a major economic engine is plopped in the middle of nowhere.

As this squabble goes through the courts, the residents of the region should be demanding their own answers.