[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 97 (Monday, July 12, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Page S8271]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. COVERDELL (for himself, Mr. Thurmond, Mr. Cleland, and Mr. 
        Hollings):
  S.J. Res. 29. A joint resolution to grant the consent of Congress to 
the boundary change between Georgia and South Carolina; to the 
Committee on the Judiciary.


     granting congressional consent for the georgia-south carolina 
                           interstate compact

  Mr. COVERDELL. Mr. President, today I rise to offer a joint 
resolution to grant congressional consent to an Interstate Compact 
between my state of Georgia and the state of South Carolina which 
resolves a border dispute whose origin dates back to the Articles of 
Confederation between the two states. On June 25, 1990, the Supreme 
Court in Georgia vs. South Carolina (No. 74, Original) ruled that 
Georgia lost sovereignty over the Barnwell Islands in the Savannah 
River to South Carolina. These islands had shifted due to erosion and 
accretion since the time of the first scientifically accurate survey of 
the area in 1855. The Supreme Court further ordered the two states to 
determine a new boundary and submit it to the Court for final approval.
  During the summer of 1993, the two states with the assistance of the 
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reached an 
agreement on a common boundary. Subsequently, the agreement was adopted 
by the Georgia General Assembly on April 5, 1994, and by the South 
Carolina General Assembly on May 29, 1996.
  On May 26, 1999, the agreed boundary was forwarded to Congress for 
its approval in accordance with the U.S. Constitution Article IV, 
Section 10. This Compact once adopted will amend the Beaufort 
Convention of 1787.
  With passage of this resolution, granting Congress' consent to the 
Georgia-South Carolina Interstate Compact, Congress will have fulfilled 
its obligation, and the agreed upon boundary will be presented to the 
Supreme Court for its final approval and application. I am pleased to 
have my colleagues from South Carolina, Senators Thurmond and Hollings, 
and my colleague from Georgia, Senator Cleland, join me in sponsoring 
this historic piece of legislation. In this day, where members from 
both sides of the aisle are speaking of the need for more 
bipartisanship, I would like to commend these two great states for 
coming together and reaching an agreement on such a contentious issue 
and ask for the full Senate's support for this important and necessary 
legislation.
  Mr. President, I ask for unanimous consent that the following 
chronology be included in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

 GEORGIA-SOUTH CAROLINA BORDER AGREEMENT FOR THE LOWER REACHES OF THE 
            SAVANNAH RIVER TO THE SEA--CHRONOLOGY OF EVENTS

       April 28, 1787--The Beaufort Convention: Under the Articles 
     of Confederation of 1778, South Carolina and Georgia agreed 
     that the boundary between the two states would be in the 
     northern branch of the Savannah River, reserving all islands 
     in the river to Georgia.
       January 30, 1922--Georgia v. South Carolina (No. 16, 
     Original): The U.S. Supreme Court held that where there were 
     no islands in the boundary rivers, the boundary in on the 
     water midway between the main banks when the water is at 
     ordinary stage. When there are islands, the boundary is 
     midway between the banks of the island and the South Carolina 
     shore, with the water at ordinary stage.
       June 25, 1990--Georgia v. South Carolina (No. 74, 
     Original): The U.S. Supreme Court held that Georgia lost 
     sovereignty over the Barnwell Islands to South Carolina by 
     acquiescence, and that the Beaufort Convention did not 
     control new islands that later emerged in the Savannah River. 
     Accordingly, the Court generally adopted the findings (with 
     some exceptions) of its Special Master, Senior Judge Walter 
     E. Hoffman, with regard to several disputed islands and the 
     headlands of the river. The Court directed the two states to 
     determine the boundary in accordance with the principles in 
     its rulings, and to submit the boundary to the Court for 
     final approval.
       June 24, 1991--Cooperative Agreement: Both states and the 
     National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) 
     entered a cooperative agreement to survey the area and plot 
     the boundary. In order to comply with the requirement that 
     the river be charted as is existed prior to the dredgings and 
     changes in the navigational courses which occurred in the 
     1880's, the parties adopted the Special Master's decision 
     that the main thread of the Savannah River as it existed on 
     the 1855 charts would be used. NOAA flew new aerial surveys 
     of the river and plotted the 1855 thread of the river on the 
     new surveys.
       Summer, 1993--Joint Meetings and Negotiations: After NOAA 
     completed its work, the states realized that the course of 
     the river had changed so substantially since 1855 that using 
     the 1855 thread of the river was unworkable. Because of 
     recent navigational channel deepening efforts by the U.S. 
     Corps of Engineers, Georgia and South Carolina agreed to use 
     the northern edge of the shipping channel, including any 
     turning basins, as the primary agreed upon boundary. More 
     specifically, the ``new'' boundary would start from the 
     middle of the river above Pennyworth Island, between 
     Pennyworth Island and the South Carolina shore, and then to 
     the tidegate and the northern edge of the Back River turning 
     basin. After following the navigational channel to the buoy 
     nearest the 3-mile territorial limit, the boundary would then 
     depart eastward along the 104 degree bearing adopted by the 
     Court.
       April 5, 1994--Georgia General Assembly Adopts Agreed 
     Boundary: Georgia adopted the agreed boundary line, using the 
     Annual Survey--1992, Savannah Harbor, as amended by the 
     Savannah Harbor Deepening Project. The line was plotted using 
     the Georgia Plane Coordinate System.
       May 29, 1996--South Carolina General Assembly Adopts Agreed 
     Boundary: South Carolina adopted the agreed boundary line, 
     but asked NOAA to covert the Georgia coordinates to points of 
     latitude and longitude.
       November, 1998--Charts assembled: Because only three 
     original copies of the 1992 channel charts were available, a 
     special printing of the color charts was run, with the 
     Savannah Harbor Deepening Project charts bound together.
       May 26, 1999--Agreed Boundary Forwarded for Congressional 
     Approval: The States submitted the agreed boundary to the 
     Congress for approval as an Interstate Compact pursuant to 
     the United States Constitution, Article IV, Section 10, which 
     amends the Beaufort Convention of 1787.

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