Haley: SC came out ahead with Georgia port permit

CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — Gov. Nikki Haley says South Carolina came out ahead when the state’s environmental board approved a permit allowing the deepening of the Savannah River channel to the Port of Savannah.

She told a group of about 800 people representing maritime interests in Charleston on Tuesday the state doesn’t have a fight with Savannah. The state, she says, is fighting for jobs.

She says the state got a 50-year commitment from Georgia to attend to environmental issues such as dissolved oxygen in the water and wetlands along the rivers.

She says that while some in South Carolina want to fight Savannah by suing to block their permit, South Carolina won’t get money to deepen the Charleston Harbor without working with federal lawmakers on the other side of the river.