By Dan McCue

COLUMBIA -- The S.C. House of Representatives on Wednesday concurred with Senate amendments to a Jasper County port bill sponsored by House Speaker Bobby Harrell, R-Charleston, and has sent the bill on to Gov. Mark Sanford for his signature.

Immediately after the action, Harrell said through an aide that the bill doesn’t help or hinder a deal made subsequent to its introduction between Sanford and Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue to work together to create a bi-state port facility in Jasper County.

However, said Greg Foster, spokesman for the speaker’s office, its passage does provide a mechanism to proceed with a terminal on the South Carolina side of the Savannah River should the governors’ deal, which must survive several hurdles before it is enacted, fall apart.

Harrell pre-filed the bill last December in the belief that it would end, once and for all, the protracted legal battle over competing plans to develop a cargo container terminal along the Savannah River.

The bill gives the S.C. State Ports Authority the task of being the leader in this port project for the state while also encouraging private involvement and establishes a timeline for the port to be finished.

If signed into law by Sanford, bill H-3505 would suspend Jasper County’s ability to condemn the 1,800-acre site, or any other condemnation related to the development of a terminal facility, for a period of three years.

It would also direct the SPA to conclude its condemnation of the property, which is owned by the state of Georgia, as quickly as possible and to meet specific deadlines in regard to the actual development of the site once it takes possession of the property.

“Given that Charleston’s port will soon be at full capacity, it is absolutely vital to our state to have a port in Jasper County,” Harrell said. “As this port will serve the entire state, it’s my belief the (S.C.) State Ports Authority should take the lead in its development."

The governors’ agreement effectively blocks the SPA from proceeding in the near term, but doesn’t technically end the dispute between the two states over the land. Georgia’s opposition to South Carolina’s condemnation of the property will only officially end when a plan to build a joint port in Jasper County is affirmed by both state legislatures.

Jasper County has been actively exploring for at least four years the possibility of creating a terminal on land currently used by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to dispose of dredge material.

The SPA issued a competing proposal for the same site in 2005.

Last spring, the S.C. State Supreme Court ruled the SPA had greater powers of condemnation for public purposes than Jasper County, but also left the door open for more legal wrangling by implying that if the SPA didn’t move quickly to take possession of the land, Jasper County might have another shot at developing the terminal.

In addition to resolving a wrath of legal issues, Harrell’s bill also establishes something of a timetable or series of benchmarks for the project.

As outlined in the bill, the SPA would be required to complete the acquisition of the land within three months of resolving outstanding legal issues with Georgia over the condemnation.

“By building a new port in Jasper County we would be creating the biggest import and export potential on the eastern seaboard,” Harrell said. “It would be even bigger than the Port of New York/New Jersey.”