Title 54, Ports and Maritime Matters

The owners or occupiers of any wharf, warehouse or terminal facility within Charleston County shall at all times, as long as such property is used for public purposes, keep it and the sheds thereon and the approaches thereto in proper condition and repair. If such wharf, warehous…

If any person having a wharf, warehouse or terminal facility used for public purposes in Charleston County shall be guilty of a violation of the rules and regulations provided and prescribed by the Authority, such person owning or operating such wharf, warehouse or terminal facil…

A person may appeal from an order, ruling, or requirement of the authority pursuant to this article to the Administrative Law Court as provided in Sections 1-23-380(B) and 1-23-600(D). The appeal shall stay the execution of an order, ruling, or requirement. No fines or penalties …

The provisions of this article shall not apply to any portion of Charleston County not included in the city of Charleston or in the portion of the county lying to the north of said city and between the Ashley and Cooper Rivers.

Members of the board of directors may be removed by the Governor pursuant to Section 1-3-240(C)(1), for a breach of duty required by Section 54-3-80, or for entering into a conflict of interest transaction prohibited by Section 54-3-90.

(A) Each member of the board, except for the Secretary of Transportation and the Secretary of Commerce, or their designees, must possess a four-year baccalaureate or more advanced degree from: (1) a recognized institution of higher learning requiring face-to-face contact between …

The Authority may fix the lines along the bay and harbor of Charleston and the rivers and creeks flowing therein within which riparian owners may erect wharves, docks and other proper erections and fixtures for commercial, manufacturing or any other purposes. The Authority may ca…

No person shall build or extend any wharf or other obstruction in or upon the waters of the bay or harbor of Charleston or the rivers or creeks flowing therein without first obtaining, in writing, from the Authority a permit for so doing, except when the lines of such wharf have …

No person shall build any wharf or other obstruction beyond the lines so fixed by the Authority except when the lines of such wharf have heretofore been fixed by grant or by authority of State legislation. Any person so doing shall pay the sum of twenty dollars for every such off…

The Authority shall examine, or cause to be examined, all the docks, public or private, upon the waters of Charleston bay and harbor and the rivers and creeks flowing therein. When it is the opinion of the Authority that any such dock is not in a proper condition for the purposes…

The Authority shall prosecute for fines and penalties under Sections 54-3-610 to 54-3-640.

The board shall conduct an annual performance review of the executive director and submit a written report of its findings to the Governor and the General Assembly. A draft of the performance review must be submitted to the executive director, and the executive director must be p…

(A) The State Ports Authority has not had statutory responsibility to operate a marine terminal at Port Royal since September 21, 2004, and has ceased all marine operations at Port Royal. (B) The State Ports Authority is hereby directed to sell all its real and personal property …

(A) A member of the board of directors shall discharge his duties as a director, including his duties as a member of a committee: (1) in good faith; (2) with the care an ordinarily prudent person in a like position would exercise under similar circumstances; and (3) in a manner h…

The South Carolina State Ports Authority shall have jurisdiction over the harbor and bay of Charleston and the rivers and creeks flowing therein, may preserve peace and good order in said bay and harbor and shall make such regulations as it may see fit, not repugnant to the laws …

When any dredging or excavation shall be done in said bay and harbor or rivers and creeks or the docks thereon, the material excavated shall be deposited only at such place or places as may be designated by the Authority, under such penalty not exceeding the amount prescribed in …

The Authority may elect or appoint annually a harbor master and such number of port wardens as in its discretion is necessary for the bay and harbor of Charleston and the rivers and creeks flowing therein and may define and assign the duties of such harbor master and port wardens…

The Authority may levy and collect from all vessels entering into and using the port of Charleston such fees and harbor or port charges, not inconsistent with the law, as, in its discretion, may be necessary to pay the harbor master and port wardens for the services required of t…

All fees, harbor or port charges, fines and penalties collected under the provisions of this article shall be paid over to the Authority and be disbursed by it in paying the salaries of the harbor master and port wardens and such other officers as it may see fit to appoint to fac…

The Authority shall annually report to the General Assembly the amounts received for fees, harbor or port charges, fines and penalties and the disbursement thereof and also generally its acts and doings under this article.

(A) A conflict of interest transaction is a transaction with the State Ports Authority in which a director has a direct or indirect interest. A conflict of interest transaction is not voidable by the authority solely because of the director's interest in the transaction if any on…

All cities of this State having a population of fifty thousand inhabitants or more, located upon a navigable stream, whether tidal or nontidal, may purchase or otherwise acquire, within or without or partly within and partly without the corporate limits of such cities, lands, wat…

All property acquired by any city of this State for the purpose of establishing, developing, maintaining or operating the port and terminal utilities of such city in pursuance of the provisions of this chapter shall be exempt from taxation so long as it shall be maintained and us…

The powers conferred by this chapter upon such cities of this State are, and shall be taken, deemed and construed to be, in addition to the powers otherwise enjoyed by such cities.

For the purpose of exercising the power vested in such city under the provisions of Section 54-5-10, there is hereby created for each such city a commission which shall be known as the port utilities commission of __________ (naming the city). This commission shall be composed of…

The election for the commissioners of the port utilities commission of such cities may be held in the following manner: Upon the duly signed petition of registered electors qualified to vote in such cities equal in number to twenty-five per cent of the votes cast for all candidat…

The persons so elected, designated or appointed to such office shall qualify by taking the oath taken by the election officers of any such city. The mayor of such city shall notify the persons elected as members of the port utilities commission within ten days after the result of…

The mayor and alderman of any such city shall fill any vacancy occurring in the commission by appointment for the unexpired term, except in the case of the two members appointed by the Governor, in which event the vacancy shall be filled by the Governor.

The port utilities commission of any such city may in its name carry out on behalf of such city the intent and purposes of the provisions of Section 54-5-10 and to that end may exercise all the rights, powers and privileges conferred upon such cities in Section 54-5-10. But the c…

Any person who sustains injuries to his person or whose property is damaged by the negligent construction, development, improvement, maintenance or operation of any wharf, dock, warehouse, building, right of way, terminal railway or other property under the control of any city or…

The commission shall have no power to incur any indebtedness whatsoever without the express authority or concurrence of the city council of any such city.

The port utilities commission of any such city shall make a full statement to the city council of such city at the end of each month of its receipts, disbursements and outstanding accounts of all kinds for the preceding month.

(A) In addition to the above provisions of this joint resolution, a commission to be known as the Savannah River Maritime Commission is hereby established to represent this State in all matters pertaining to the navigability, depth, dredging, wastewater and sludge disposal, and r…

If any ship, vessel, goods or effects shall be stranded or cast on shore and no person appears to claim the goods which shall be so saved, the local magistrate shall take them into his custody or possession and, as soon as may be, give notice and a schedule in writing of the diff…

(A) A committee of nine members of the "Hunley Commission" shall be appointed, three of whom must be members of the House of Representatives to be appointed by the Speaker, three of whom must be members of the Senate to be appointed by the President of the Senate, and three membe…

The Hunley Commission and the South Carolina Educational Television Commission on any film either makes relating to H. L. Hunley including, but not limited to, the recovery of the Hunley which is furnished to another party for other than a contractual fee shall insert in appropri…

If such goods be not claimed within sixty days after such delivery to the county treasurer they shall be publicly sold or, if the goods be perishable, they shall be sold forthwith and, after deducting reasonable charges, the residue shall be lodged in the county treasury, for the…

Any person, not empowered, who shall enter or try to enter forcibly on board any ship or vessel stranded or cast away or in distress or molest in the preservation thereof may be repelled by force. And any person who shall carry away or secrete any goods and effects saved as afore…

Any magistrate on information, upon oath, of any part of cargo or effects of any vessel lost or stranded on or near the seacoasts being unlawfully conveyed or concealed or of some cause or reasonable suspicion thereof may issue his warrant for searching for such goods or effects …

Any person discovering where any such goods are wrongfully bought, sold or concealed, so that the owner, his agent or attorney, shall regain them, shall be entitled to a reasonable salvage, not exceeding twenty-five per cent on the value, to be adjusted by the next neighboring ma…

If any person shall offer or expose for sale any goods or effects whatsoever belonging to any ship or vessel lost, stranded or cast on shore as aforesaid and unlawfully taken away or reasonably suspected to have been, the person to whom such goods or effects shall be so offered f…

This article may be cited as the South Carolina Underwater Antiquities Act of 1991.

As used in this article: (1) "Artifact", "artifactual item", or "artifactual material" means any object or assemblage of objects found in an archaeological context which yields or is likely to yield information of significance to the scientific study of human prehistory, history,…

(A) All submerged archaeological historic property and artifacts and all submerged paleontological property located on or recovered from submerged lands over which the State has sovereign control, are declared to be the property of the State. (B) Title to submerged archaeological…

(A) The custodian of submerged archaeological historic property and artifacts owned by the State or on state submerged lands is the South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology. The South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology may promulgate regulations as…

(A) A person desiring to conduct activities pursuant to this article in the course of which submerged archaeological historic properties or paleontological properties may be removed, displaced, or destroyed shall apply to the institute for a license to conduct the activity. If th…