Latest news with #Okefenokee
Washington Post
14 hours ago
- Business
- Washington Post
Land deal ends controversial mining fight near Georgia's Okefenokee Swamp
A contentious, years-long fight over a proposed mine next to one of the South's last truly wild places ended abruptly Friday, when a nonprofit group announced it would spend nearly $60 million to acquire thousands of acres of land near the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge in rural Georgia. The Conservation Fund, which works around the country to acquire and protect threatened landscapes, said it had agreed to purchase roughly 7,800 acres from Alabama-based Twin Pines Minerals, as well as the underlying mineral rights. The landmark deal halted a proposed titanium mine on the site, which has been the subject of legal and political fights, as well as sustained criticism from advocacy groups, scientists, lawmakers and other citizens. The opponents argued that mining the mineral-rich area known as Trail Ridge would not only be risky but also environmentally reckless, given its proximity to the largest blackwater swamp in North America. 'This is the most important deal we've worked on,' said Stacy Funderburke, vice president of the central Southeast region for The Conservation Fund, who said the group felt compelled to end the prospect of mining near the Okefenokee. 'It's just a unique place.' Funderburke said the purchase came after about a year of negotiations, and was possible in part because of significant support from a number of individuals and philanthropic groups — including the Holdfast Collective, a nonprofit dedicated to environmental protection and funded by the outdoor gear company Patagonia. Friday's news brought praise — and relief — from activists who had opposed the mine over the past 6 years. 'This is an incredibly special outcome, and there is no place more deserving than the Okefenokee,' Megan Huynh, a senior attorney for the Southern Environmental Law Center, said in a statement Friday. 'Georgians sent a clear message to Twin Pines Minerals that mining next to the Okefenokee is an unacceptable risk. This wouldn't have been possible without a powerful coalition, and regular Georgians who were willing to stand up and defend a place as beloved as the Okefenokee.' The roughly 640-square-mile refuge in southeastern Georgia supports an astounding array of life, from black bears and red-cockaded woodpeckers to thousands of alligators. It is home to black gum trees and carnivorous plants with names such as hooded pitcher and golden trumpet. It is the headwaters for two rivers, the Suwannee and the St. Marys. And its vast peat deposits, formed by the slow decomposition of plants and 15 feet deep in places, store enormous amounts of carbon. Formed by a saucer-shaped depression left behind when the ocean retreated thousands of years ago, the Okefenokee is now a shallow, sprawling, mystical bog, fed almost entirely by rainwater — and a place that draws an estimated 800,000 annual visitors. 'Everything you see around us is old seafloor,' Michael Lusk, who manages the refuge on behalf of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, told The Post during a visit last year. It is also a fragile ecosystem — one that proponents feared could easily be upended by a nearby mining operation. Twin Pines, which in an email declined to comment on Friday's land deal, initially sought permits in 2019 to mine roughly 2,400 acres near the southeastern corner of the swamp. The company later amended its requests and sought to operate on a 582-acre site, vowing that its investment would expand the local tax base and bring hundreds of good-paying jobs to an area where poverty runs deep. The company insisted that its operations to extract titanium dioxide — widely used as a pigment in paints, sunscreens and an array of other products — would not leave a lasting scar on the land or threaten the beloved swamp. It vowed to mine only a small portion at a time, to dig no deeper than 50 feet, and to operate no closer than 2.9 miles from the swamp. Last year, Georgia's Environmental Protection Division issued draft permits that, if finalized, would have allowed the project to move forward. In its responses to the tens of thousands of public comments it had received raising concerns about the mine, the agency wrote in part that it believed the proposed operation 'should have a minimal impact' on the swamp. Such findings did not assuage opponents, who included some local residents, admirers of the swamp far beyond Georgia's borders, and even the Biden administration. During one three-hour public hearing last year, nearly 100 people spoke passionately against the proposed project, as hundreds more listened in. No one spoke in favor. College students, grandparents, scientists, environmental activists, outdoor enthusiasts and local residents issued similar pleas, pleading with state officials to halt the project. They quoted the Bible, the Torah and University of Georgia hydrology findings. They described the Okefenokee as 'majestic,' 'sacred' and 'precious.' They called the idea of mining anywhere near it 'irresponsible,' 'heartbreaking' and 'shortsighted.' On Friday, Funderburke said the land deal should be fully complete by the end of July. Over time, he said, the group plans to manage the site for permanent conservation and allow public access. 'It felt like the most urgent thing was to stop the mining threat, which was imminent,' said Funderburke, who said he has been coming to the swamp each year for decades, often bringing along his daughters. 'There's just no other place like the Okefenokee.' Even as the most recent fight over the swamp's fate ended on Friday, advocates warned that it might not be the last such confrontation. In the 1990s, DuPont pursued plans to mine titanium dioxide across tens of thousands of acres in the area, which is home to significant deposits of titanium dioxide and other minerals. At the time, the federal government joined environmental groups, scientists and local residents to fight the plan. 'Titanium is a common mineral,' Bruce Babbitt, President Bill Clinton's interior secretary, said during a 1997 visit, 'while the Okefenokee is a very uncommon swamp.' DuPont eventually abandoned the project and donated 16,000 acres for conservation. Josh Marks, an environmental attorney who has fought mining near the swamp for decades, called Friday's land deal a 'huge victory' for 'our state's greatest natural treasure.' But, he warned in an email, 'The threat is not over by a long shot.' He implored state lawmakers to finally pass proposed legislation that would safeguard the Okefenokee from future mining, and for the governor to sign it, 'so that we don't have to keep having these fights every 20 years.'
Yahoo
04-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Georgia House again takes up legislation intended to protect the Okefenokee from future mines
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed expanding the boundaries of the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge. Opponents of a proposed mine near the swamp want the feds to "think bigger." Joe Cook/Georgia River Network A state House subcommittee hosted a public hearing Monday to consider legislation designed to protect the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge from future mining projects encroaching on North America's largest blackwater swamp. The House Natural Resource and Environment Subcommittee heard Monday from the opponents and supporters of two House bills that ranged from creating five-year moratorium on mining permits along the Okefenokee Swamp's Trail Ridge to an outright ban on the state issuing permits along the property that serves as the hydrological divide between the swamp and refuge that straddles the Georgia-Florida border. One of the two bipartisan Okefenokee bills discussed Monday, House Bill 562, proposes a five-year moratorium on the state issuing surface mining permits along the Okefenokee Swamp's Trail Ridge while experts evaluate the potential to lower water levels. The moratorium bill is sponsored by Thomasville Republican Rep. Darlene Taylor, who also presented arguments Monday. House Bill 561, the so-called Okefenokee Protection Act, would place a permanent ban of future mining along Trail Ridge. The opposition to the measures came from representatives for Twin Pines, a local county commissioner, state legislator and the owner of a local timber company. They argued that the moratorium infringes on property rights and undermines the Georgia Environmental Protection Department's expertise and cited the economic benefits of mining and the potential for safe mining while digging for heavy minerals. Taylor urged the legislative committee members to pass her bill intended to block the EPD from approving permits to strip mine along the natural treasure that serves as a natural dam to the swamp and was once the home where the Muscogee Creek Nation thrived. The Okefenokee Swamp, a 440,000-acre Blackwater wetland in Georgia, is home to more than 1,000 species and is a significant tourist attraction, contributing $90 million annually to the economy. 'I'm just a little old lady from south Georgia, not an engineer or any ecologist, not a forester, but I have been there,' Taylor said. 'Some of my fondest memories as a child involve visiting, enjoying the beauty, and I want that for my grandchildren and for your grandchildren. I also have unhappy memories of what happened to the Everglades. I grew up in Miami and witnessed the devastation and the world that was lost to us forever.' The fight over surface mining near the Okefenokee Wildlife Refuge has intensified since 2019 when an Alabama-based company, Twin Pines Minerals, went public with its plan to mine for titanium oxide and zirconium just outside the current refuge's boundaries. Neither bill would directly impede Twin Pines plans for a demonstration mine that is currently in the final permitting review stages under the EPD. Georgia House lawmakers float bipartisan bill to protect Okefenokee Swamp from new mining efforts State lawmakers have debated legislation intended to protect the swamp from strip mining the past few years, but the legislation failed to gain traction. If either bill is passed, it could hinder Twin Pines' ability to receive permits to mine beyond its initial 584 acres of Trail Ridge and also prevent future companies from surface mining along the ridge. Charlton County Commissioner Drew Jones, who represents an area that is home to the swamp, defended the economic boost that good paying mining jobs would bring to a region that struggles economically. He cited Charlton's public school system providing every student free lunch and a county's $13 million annual budget relying on $3 million in taxes from a landfill, $600,000 from a prison and $200,000 from a mine that's been around a decade. The mines employ machine operators, truck drivers, chemists, engineers and other types of trade jobs, Jones said. The supporters of banning or placing a moratorium on future Trial Ridge mining are making overblown claims about the dangers of Twin Pines plan to perform surface mining along the ridge, said Jones, who is a forest land manager for Toledo Manufacturing Co. Toledo Manufacturing controls about 50,000 acres near the swamp. He urged legislators to ignore speculation and allow the EPD to make a determination. Rhett Jackson, a professor of water resources at the University of Georgia, referenced a a letter from several prominent scientists who cited problems with the testing conducted by the state EPD and with the claims from Twin Pines that the mining would not place a shallow swamp at further risk, Jackson said. Josh Marks, president of Georgians for the Okefenokee and an environmental lawyer, also argued that the EPD's analysis is flawed while imploring the Legislature to pass both bills. 'I've been involved with Okefenokee protection and mining for 28 years starting in 1997,' Marks said. 'When the DuPont Chemical Company came down to the Okefenokee and wanted to mine the entirety of Trail Ridge, there were enormous amounts of scientific discussions back then indicating that mining the dam that helped create and maintain the swamp was a terrible idea.' State Rep. Robert Dickey, a Musella Republican, questioned Marks about why the Legislature should potentially override the EPD's authority to decide if a mining permit should be granted along Trail Ridge. 'I just don't think the Legislature has the expertise to evaluate each one, one-by-one on the facts of each site and the different types of economic development,' he said. Joe Hopkins, owner of timber company Toledo Manufacturing, recommended that the state EPD's scientists and other experts be allowed to properly review mining permit applications. Hopkins said he would support an intensive study on the effects of various types of mining along the ridge, but is opposed to both HB 561 or HB 562. 'We need to base a decision on science, not emotions or the economic and political power of environmental nongovernmental organizations and their massive letter writing campaigns, which are very effective,' Hopkins said. 'They have done a great job on this and the media campaigns that they have put forth, even to the point of character assassination tactics on me.' Barbara Borque, a past president of the Garden Club of Georgia, said that the scientific consensus is that mining will lower the swamp's water level. 'The question is just how much the mining company has experts that will say, 'Don't worry, trust us, it'll be OK,'' she said. 'However, you have heard other experts warn of serious dangers. We cannot count on Mother Nature to always be kind.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
