A virtual hearing for a mining proposal near Okefenokee Swamp has left members of the public with many unanswered questions.
During the three-hour hearing held Wednesday by the Savannah District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, just over 30 minutes was devoted to addressing questions from the public.
Traditional public hearings allow interested individuals to give oral comments, but the virtual format required questions for the Corps or the mining company, Twin Pines Minerals, to be submitted in advance via email or in the chat box as the virtual hearing took place. The Corps has extended the comment period to May 28 and will include all questions in the public record.
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“We are glad that the Corps has granted additional time to allow the public to weigh in on a proposal that carries such high stakes for the Okefenokee Swamp,” said Bill Sapp, senior attorney for the Southern Environmental Law Center. “Tens of thousands of Georgians and out-of-state visitors have already expressed significant concerns, and we hope local and statewide communities will continue to make their voices heard about the prospect of mining right next to one of the nation’s most important natural treasures.”
In March, Twin Pines Minerals submitted a new application for a demonstration mine in a reduced area of approximately 898 acres about 2.7 miles southeast of the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge. The area along Trail Ridge, currently in use for commercial forestry, is rich in titanium and zirconium, heavy metals with a wide range of uses.
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The revised proposal is a scaled-down version of the previous permit application, which the company withdrew in February. Environmental advocates and members of the public had continued lobbying the Corps to request a detailed analysis, or an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), to demonstrate how the mining operation may impact the swamp and surrounding areas.
Representatives of Twin Pines said the smaller operation is designed to serve as a real-world example that heavy mineral sand mining can be conducted in an environmentally responsible manner and to validate a previously completed groundwater model that predicted the mining operation would have a negligible impact on local groundwater resources, surface water resources, and the Okefenokee Swamp.
The virtual hearing began with a brief presentation from the Corps on the regulatory program. Representatives of Twin Pines gave an extensive presentation outlining the details of the project history and timeline as well as the current proposal, mining process and potential impacts.
Corps members interrupted a second presentation from Twin Pines on geology and hydrogeology by Dr. Robert Holt in order to take questions from the public before the meeting ended.
Many of the questions were highly technical in nature, said Corps spokesman Billy Birdwell. But a large number of questions also focused on whether the Corps would require an EIS, even for the scaled-down operation.
“We don’t really know for sure,” said William Rutlin, chief, Coastal Section for the Corps. “There are different factors that are considered in terms of whether we will require an Environmental Impact Statement.” Proximity to the Okefenokee is one of those factors, he said.
Steve Ingle, president of Twin Pines, who has emphasized the economic benefits of the mine, said the operation would have 300 to 400 employees at full capacity, and they hoped to draw employees from the general area of Folkston.
The Corps will continue to work with other agencies to evaluate the Twin Pines permit application.
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