World-famous Okefenokee Swamp Threatened by Mining

Here is another relevant article with a correlating petition from Defenders of Wildlife

Protect wildlife in the Okefenokee Refuge from this strip mining project!

Over a thousand species of southeastern wildlife are in jeopardy due to a proposed strip mine – we need your help to stop it!

Twin Pines Minerals, an Alabama-based company, is moving forward with its plan to break ground on the first phase of a roughly 8,000-acre mining project right next to the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge. If their permits are granted, the refuge’s wildlife - including Florida black bears, herons, alligators and more – will be in danger.

Protect the Okefenokee Refuge from strip mining!
 
Here is another relevant article.

Protect the Okefenokee Now or Risk Losing It Forever

Once again, the mining industry has taken aim at one of our most cherished wild places — the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge — reigniting a debate once thought settled. Emboldened by an environmental regulatory rollback made by the Trump administration, Twin Pines Minerals has set its sights on obtaining permits to mine near the Okefenokee in a matter of months.

During my tenure as director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service over 20 years ago, the DuPont company attempted to create an industrial mining complex on the doorstep of the Okefenokee, the largest wildlife refuge east of the Mississippi and arguably our country’s healthiest remaining wetland of significance.

Protect the Okefenokee Now or Risk Losing It Forever - Morning Consult
 
Here is another relevant article.

Environmental groups ramping up opposition to Okefenokee mining project

Environmental groups are ramping up their efforts to fight a controversial, $300 million proposal to mine property near Georgia’s Okefenokee Swamp, a proposal that now has the attention of Georgia’s newly elected Democratic senators.

More than two years ago, Twin Pines Minerals began acquiring multimillion-dollar parcels of land near the south end of the swamp’s barrier for the purpose of titanium mining. Last year, the Alabama-based company filed permit requests with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for a project that would ultimately include 12,000 acres near the wildlife refuge.

https://www-ajc-com.cdn.ampproject....ct/IHEWXLNPTVAL7HAWVNOVROTW3A/?outputType=amp
 
Here is another relevant article. That is a good question they posed. Is Twin Pine Minerals incompetent or knowingly unlawful?

Twin Pines Minerals: Incompetent or Knowingly Unlawful?

With a long, tortured history, the leadership of Twin Pines Minerals, an Alabama-based mining company, is known not for its stewardship, but rather its flagrant disregard for environmental safeguards. By polluting the air of local communities in northeast Georgia, killing thousands of fish in Georgia waterways, violating air quality safeguards in North Carolina, illegally discharging mining waste into Florida wetlands and operating without a permit in Florida, its leaders are tied to a handful of companies whose methods of operation are as predictable as they are routine. Apparently, environmental violations are considered a normal cost of doing business.1

It was not surprising then to learn that Twin Pines Minerals, in its rush to mine next to the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, skipped another step, bypassing a county permitting process needed to break ground on its staging areas, one of which is depicted below.

Twin Pines Minerals: Incompetent or Knowingly Unlawful?
 
Here is another relevant article.

Former Federal and State Officials Draw Line in the Sand for Okefenokee

In a full-page advertisement published in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution this week, a wave of former federal and state officials—as well as Georgians of influence—called upon the state of Georgia to permanently end the threat of mining near Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge. For a project beset by failed community relations, faulty science and a near-universal lack of support, it is another blow for Twin Pines Minerals and the latest salvo in a fight for nothing less than the preservation of Okefenokee as we know it today.

Led by former Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt and Secretary of the Treasury Henry M. Paulson, Jr., three former directors of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (under presidents George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter) joined over 100,000 people in denouncing operations proposed by Alabama-based company Twin Pines Minerals. While there is a “time and place for industry,” they noted, “it’s not on the edge of the Okefenokee.”

Former Federal and State Officials Draw Line in the Sand for Okefenokee
 
Here is another relevant article.

As Opposition to Mining Peaks, State Legislation Would Protect Okefenokee

On February 8th, a bipartisan group of state legislators in Georgia introduced a bill designed to resolve a conservation challenge that has plagued the Peach State for decades: the threat of mining near the Okefenokee Swamp and National Wildlife Refuge.

House Bill 1289 would ban future mining along the Trail Ridge, a feature that parallels the Okefenokee. Long targeted by a handful of unscrupulous mining interests, the Trail Ridge influences the storage of water in the swamp, acting as a “geomorphological dam.” By destroying its unique soil profile, and pumping groundwater from the swamp’s edge, mining could fatally undermine the Okefenokee’s ability to sustain itself, according to scientists and federal agencies.

On February 8th, a bipartisan group of state legislators in Georgia introduced a bill designed to resolve a conservation challenge that has plagued the Peach State for decades: the threat of mining near the Okefenokee Swamp and National Wildlife Refuge.

House Bill 1289 would ban future mining along the Trail Ridge, a feature that parallels the Okefenokee. Long targeted by a handful of unscrupulous mining interests, the Trail Ridge influences the storage of water in the swamp, acting as a “geomorphological dam.” By destroying its unique soil profile, and pumping groundwater from the swamp’s edge, mining could fatally undermine the Okefenokee’s ability to sustain itself, according to scientists and federal agencies.

As Opposition to Mining Peaks, State Legislation Would Protect Okefenokee
 
Here is another relevant article.

Army Corps blocks strip mine near Okefenokee wetlands after opposition

The Army Corps of Engineers is blocking a proposed strip mine for titanium set outside the fragile Okefenokee Swamp in Georgia, reversing an earlier decision, after the project drew opposition from environmental groups and political leaders.

Environmentalists and federal agencies had previously cited the harm that the mine would inflict on the wetlands. But after the Trump administration rolled back various regulations, millions of acres of wetlands were no longer subject to federal environmental oversight.

Those rules, however, were thrown out by a federal judge last year, affording renewed protections to streams, marshes and wetlands.

The Army Corps, a unit of the military, said in a memo Friday that the previous decision allowing the project to move ahead was no longer valid because the corps had failed to properly consult with tribal stakeholders.

The Army Corps decision came after Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) sought to block the proposed mine, focusing on threats to Okefenokee’s environmental, cultural and economic integrity.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/06/04/okefenokee-mine-blocked/
 
Here is a relevant article.

Interior secretary: `Unacceptable' to mine near famed swamp

A member of President Joe Biden's Cabinet is urging Georgia officials to deny permits for a proposed mine near the edge of the famed Okefenokee Swamp and its vast wildlife refuge.

A member of President Joe Biden's Cabinet is urging Georgia officials to deny permits for a proposed mine near the edge of the famed Okefenokee Swamp and its vast wildlife refuge, saying the plan poses "unacceptable risk" to the swamp's fragile ecology.

“I write to express serious concerns regarding proposed mining activities that have the potential to negatively impact the Okefenokee Swamp ecosystem and Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge,” Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said in a letter to Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp that was obtained by The Associated Press.

Interior secretary: `Unacceptable' to mine near famed swamp
 
Here is another relevant article.

Defenders Urges Georgia to Reject Okefenokee Mining Permits as Comment Period Opens

“This is a watershed moment for the Okefenokee. The science is clear and the broad opposition from state legislators, FWS officials and local communities is deafening. It is time to finally protect this biodiverse wetland from reckless mining once and for all.”

- Christian Hunt, Senior Federal Lands Policy Analyst

Today, Georgia’s Environmental Protection Division opened a 60-day comment period on Twin Pines Minerals’ application to mine near the Okefenokee Swamp. Twin Pines has been seeking permission to break ground on the first phase of a long-term operation that will eventually consume roughly 6,000 football fields’ worth of land next to Okefenokee, North America’s largest blackwater swamp.

“This is a watershed moment for the Okefenokee. The science is clear and the broad opposition from state legislators, FWS officials and local communities is deafening,” said Christian Hunt, senior federal lands policy analyst with Defenders of Wildlife. “It is time to finally protect this biodiverse wetland from reckless mining once and for all.”

Defenders Urges Georgia to Reject Okefenokee Mining Permits as Comment Period Opens
 
Here is another relevant article.

After Secretary Haaland Raises Concern About Threats to Okefenokee, All Eyes Turn to Governor Kemp

Will Georgia’s governor protect his state’s greatest natural asset?

That’s the question facing Governor Brian Kemp, following a call to action from Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland. In a historic letter, the Secretary urged the state to reject proposed mining operations near the Okefenokee Swamp, raising the heat on a decades-long fight for the east’s largest wildlife refuge.

After Secretary Haaland Raises Concern About Threats to Okefenokee, All Eyes Turn to Governor Kemp
 
Here is another relevant article.

Georgia’s hedge against climate change: the Okefenokee’s peat

Mining could lead to the release of carbon stored beneath the swamp, accelerating climate change, researchers say.

As Michael Lusk pilots a flat-bottomed Carolina Skiff into the open water of the Okefenokee’s Grand Prairie, he spots his quarry. Several meters wide and dotted with grasses and water lilies it’s a soggy brown mat of peat that’s floated up from the bottom of the swamp. Lusk, manager of the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, dangles his legs over the front of the boat and pushes down with his feet, jiggling the mat.

Georgia's hedge against climate change: the Okefenokee's peat - The Current
 
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