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SUSTAINABILITY Recycling • Resources • Lifestyle
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Georgia Officials to Determine
Fate of Okefenokee
By Sally Bethea
T he fate of the largest wildlife
refuge east of the Mississippi
River — a freshwater ecosystem of
international importance, unpar
alleled biodiversity, and pristine
wilderness — rests in the hands of Georgia
officials.
Gov. Brian Kemp, his appointed Board
of Natural Resources, and the state regulatory
agency that they manage (Environmental
Protection Division-EPD) will determine
Above the Water Line
1
is the retired
executive director
of Chattahoochee
Riverkeeperand
an environmental
and sustainability
advocate.
Sally Bethea
Sally Bethea
whether or not the complex hydrology of
the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge is
compromised by invasive mining activities.
Last years rollback of water protection laws
by the Trump Administration resulted in the
abrupt removal of any oversight or decision
making related to these proposed activities
by federal agencies, including the Corps
of Engineers, EPA and Fish and Wildlife
Service.
The Okefenokee Swamp is a huge,
shallow depression — nearly 12 times the
size of Lake Lanier at 438,000 acres — that
lies west, and immediately adjacent to, Trail
Ridge: a mile-wide linear terrace of ancient
origin. Running more than 100 miles across
southeastern Georgia to northeastern Florida,
it stands above the surrounding lowlands
at an average height of a 16-story building.
Once located many miles offshore when this
area was covered by the sea during the last Ice
Age, Trail Ridge is now about 45 miles from,
and parallel to, the Atlantic Ocean.
FFistorically, the ridge formed a natural
trail for Indians and early white settlers
traveling through the coastal lowlands. Of
critical importance to the Okefenokee’s
structural integrity and function, Trail Ridge
serves as the swamps eastern hydrological
barrier. This natural blockade helps keep the
slow-moving, blackwater system intact to
support thousands of native plant, insect,
and animal species — and attract the more
than half a million humans who annually
visit the refuge, contributing $64 million to
local economies.
Since the middle of the last century, the
titanium-bearing heavy mineral sands found
in Trail Ridge have motivated companies
to establish strip mining operations nearby.
In the 1990s, DuPont attempted to place a
mine on the edge of the refuge — igniting a
struggle that spanned nearly a decade before
the company abandoned its plans. Titanium
is a strong, lightweight mineral used to
make pigments that whiten paint, cosmetics,
toothpaste and even Oreo cooking filling.
In my September 2019 column, I described
LEGEND
NWI Wetlands
Major Rivers
- Established V\foter Trail
- Developing Water Trail
HI Trail Ridge Sand Formation
Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge
Twin Pines Mine Site
Georgia
Florida
Source: Georgia River Network
Okefenokee -
Trail Ridge Mining
Site & Regional
Water Trails
this battle and the successful outcome;
passionate and strategic local activists and the
federal government were able to protect the
irreplaceable natural asset.
Two years ago, Twin Pines Minerals
(TPM), an Alabama-based company, picked
up the DuPont mantle and proposed to
strip-mine another deposit of titanium to
depths of up to 50 feet — deeper than the
immediately adjacent Okefenokee depression
— just outside the southeastern boundary of
the refuge in Charlton County. This time
around, as noted above, federal scientists and
policy-makers will not play a role in officially
reviewing TPM’s application and issuing
permits, thanks to last year’s significant
weakening of environmental laws. Over
several decades, TPM could mine anywhere
from 12,000 to 30,000 acres, starting with
what the company calls a “demonstration
project” on about 700 acres — once the
Georgia EPD has considered and issued five
environmental permits.
Prior to their removal from the review
process, US Fish & Wildlife Service
issued formal comments noting that the
swamp “represents one of the very few self-
contained, naturally functioning wetlands in
the world” — and that impacts from the TPM
proposal are “not sufficiently known and
whatever is done may be permanent.”
The USFWS report said the major
unknown is the potential to drain the
swamp, which would expose peat beds that
would stoke wildfires. Intensity wildfires
would pump enormous amounts of C02
into the atmosphere and damage the timber
economy. So, the mining is both a climate
change threat and a threat to the timber
economy that is the lifeblood of the area
along with tourism.
Among the other unknowns: the
hydrologic model presented by TPM to
justify “negligible” impacts to the swamp
has not been widely peer-reviewed; limited
data was collected to use in the model;
the maximum depth of future mining is
uncertain; impacts to wildlife, federally-
listed species, and recreation have not been
thoroughly evaluated; and post-mining
habitat restoration plans are incomplete — to
name just a few.
While the “unknowns” regarding
the damage this mining operation may
impose on the Okefenokee are alarming,
the “knowns” concerning the track record
ofTPM and its president Steve Ingle are
highly disturbing. According to mining
opponents, the company has a “long history
of noncompliance, plain disregard for
environmental protections... and making
false statements to the federal government.”
In one instance, TPM submitted
applications to state and federal authorities
claiming it had the right to mine property
near the swamp that it did not own or lease.
In another case, Ingle serves as vice president
of a power company that has been cited for
air pollution, odor, noise and water violations
at two wood-burning plants in northeast
Georgia; railroad ties treated with creosote
were burned at these sites, until the activity
was recently outlawed. Citizens claim that
Ingle’s company came to their communities
“under false pretenses and misinformation.”
The Georgia EPD has said that TPM’s
five environmental permit applications will
undergo a comprehensive analysis and that
public hearings will be held. While this is
a positive sign — as long as the studies are
independent and extensive — TPM has not
been shy about engaging dozens of lobbyists
20 May 2021 | Q3
AtlantalntownPaper.com