National demand for shipping is expected to double over the next 20 years, making it an "absolute necessity" that South Carolina build a port in Jasper County, Colden R. Battey Jr., a member of the S.C. State Ports Authority board of directors, said Tuesday.

The Ports Authority and Jasper County have each filed suits seeking to condemn the proposed site of the Jasper port, an approximately 1,770-acre plot on the Savannah River that is owned by the Georgia Department of Transportation.

"There's been a lot of talk about, 'Does the Ports Authority really want to build a port in Jasper County?'" Battey, a Beaufort attorney, said at a Beaufort Regional Chamber of Commerce meeting Tuesday morning. "I can tell you. Damn right we want it. It's not just that we want it; it's an absolute necessity that we build that port."

Under eminent domain laws, land can be condemned and claimed for public use, which the Ports Authority is attempting to do, said Joel Sawyer, a spokesman for Gov. Mark Sanford. Jasper County's attempt to acquire the land, however, is less likely to succeed because of plans to develop the port privately, Sawyer said.

In January 2005, Jasper County and Seattle-based SSA Marine reached a $450 million agreement to build a county-owned, privately operated terminal. Eleven days later, the Ports Authority filed suit to block that plan and announced its own plan to build a state port in Jasper.

County officials have said Jasper pursued its deal with SSA Marine only after being rebuffed repeatedly by the Ports Authority.

County officials have sometimes charged that the Ports Authority does not actually intend to build a port in Jasper County -- that it is merely attempting to acquire the land so it can prevent competition with the Port of Charleston.

Battey denied that claim Tuesday, saying the Charleston port is "just about out of space," and shipping demand only will grow.

The United States has become "an island nation" between economic powers in Northern Europe and China, according to Battey, and 98 percent of U.S. products involve overseas shipping at some point in the production or sales chain.

"Unless we maintain our shipping lanes and improve our infrastructure heading from the interior of the country to the coast, we cannot survive in this global economy," Battey said. "So it's not do we want to build Jasper County, it's that we have to build Jasper County."

Battey added that the Ports Authority "would love to work with Jasper County (to build the port), but we don't want to work with SSA Marine."

He further noted that the Ports Authority plans to build the port exclusively with Ports Authority money.

The Jasper County port would be completed within seven years under the Ports Authority plan, agency officials have said, but serious work cannot begin until the legal issues are resolved.

The state's port system pumps about $29 billion into South Carolina's economy and provides employment, directly or indirectly, for 70,000 people, Battey said.

The proposed Jasper port would create as many as 90,000 additional jobs and add billions to the economy, county officials have estimated.