Follow the science, Georgia. Permanently protect Okefenokee Swamp from mining.
Last June, the people of Georgia celebrated a huge victory when Twin Pines Minerals abandoned its proposed titanium strip mine along the Okefenokee Swamp’s southeastern border and instead sold its land for conservation.
The victory came after more than five years of tireless opposition by scientists and students, conservationists and clergy, legislators, business owners and others, all of whom fought to protect the Oke from a mining project that would have produced a pigment to whiten paint, toothpaste and junk food.
I am proud that Georgians for the Okefenokee, the organization I co-founded four years ago, played a central role in the effort.
This was the second time in 30 years that mining has threatened the Oke. Back in the 1990s, the DuPont Chemical Company proposed strip mining the swamp’s entire eastern boundary. I was part of a group that successfully persuaded DuPont to abandon the project and donate its land for conservation.
So, the victory over Twin Pines was the biggest of déjà vu moments.
Hydrologists challenge state EPD findings
Unfortunately, despite two mining companies giving up in the face of massive opposition over the past three decades, the threat to the Okefenokee remains more serious than ever.
Toledo Manufacturing, the largest remaining private landowner along the swamp’s southeastern boundary, continues to pursue mining on its property in the belief it can be done safely, and has publicly solicited DuPont’s successor, the Chemours Company, the world’s biggest titanium mining company, to move forward with a project, according to news reports. And Chemours has rejected pleas from shareholders, institutional investors and students to permanently avoid having anything to do with mining at the Okefenokee.
To justify their intransigence, Toledo and Chemours have ignored the overwhelming scientific consensus the Twin Pines project would have drawn down the swamp’s water level, presumably hoping some scientist, any scientist, might say a different technology could do it safely. But last month, their hopes may have finally, and rightly, been dashed.
UGA hydrologists released a study in December, based on extensive data collection, with two critically important conclusions:
- First, the water at the Oke’s surface has a direct connection with, and leaks down into, the Floridan aquifer underlying the swamp.
- Second, any pumping of groundwater from the aquifer would draw down the swamp’s surface water. Because groundwater pumping would be required for any mining project on the Toledo property, regardless of the technology used, this study proves once and for all that mining along the swamp’s edge cannot be done safely.
In addition to confirming what had long been suspected by the independent scientific community, the study directly rebutted the position of the Georgia Environmental Protection Division, the state regulator in charge of mining permits, which had previously stated there was an impermeable barrier preventing downward leakage of the Okefenokee’s surface water and that any groundwater pumping for mining wouldn’t cause harm.
This is not the first time that Georgia EPD’s methods have been exposed as incorrect. During its analysis of the Twin Pines proposal, EPD used the wrong river gauge to assess the impacts of mining on the swamp, according to hydrologists from across the South, including the University of Georgia and Georgia State University.
And when Twin Pines violated state rules in its collection of soil data, rendering its entire mining permit application as suspect, EPD gave it a mere slap on the wrist despite numerous former regulators believing the agency should have required the company to submit a completely new set of information. Three mistakes, and EPD should be counted out of the Okefenokee regulation business.
Peach State should pass Okefenokee Protection Act
When an agency demonstrates an inability to protect the public’s resources, as EPD has done here, it’s the duty of the legislature to step in and fill the void, especially when action is overwhelmingly demanded by the public.
That is exactly what the Georgia House of Representatives has been trying to do over the last four years.
In 2022, the Okefenokee Protection Act was first introduced in the Georgia House of Representatives by an unlikely heroine named Rep. Darlene Taylor, R-Thomasville.
The Act, which would prohibit the issuance of mining permits on Trail Ridge along the swamp’s edge, has garnered nearly 100 bipartisan cosponsors from all around the state, more than enough to win passage, and has attracted overwhelming public support.
But for four years running, the governor and two successive Speakers of the Georgia House have blocked any votes on it. And since being elected in 2018, Gov. Brian Kemp has not said one word publicly about the mining controversy or the importance of protecting the Oke from mining.
Why the inaction and silence? The only logical explanation is politics and money. Since 2018, according to OpenSecrets.org, Gov. Kemp has received nearly $160,000 from Twin Pines, Chemours, and their lobbyists, and from Toledo’s owner, who stands to make hundreds of millions from leasing the company’s land for mining.
Now that scientists from our state’s flagship university have definitively stated that mining and the Okefenokee are simply incompatible, there are no more excuses for inaction.
As Gov. Kemp enters the final year of his term, many have questioned how he will use his remaining time. With the start of the final legislative session during his tenure, we have a suggestion that should be easy to accomplish: follow the science, and either support passage of the Okefenokee Protection Act or use a small part of the state’s nearly $14.6 billion surplus to acquire the portion of the Toledo property at risk from mining.
By walking either of these paths, he will prove he is a conservative in the truest sense of the word, and he will secure a lasting legacy as the Republican governor who prioritized the interests of the public above those of his contributors and secured the protection of Georgia’s greatest natural treasure for the benefit of future generations. Let’s hope he rises to the occasion.
Josh Marks is an environmental attorney in Atlanta and president of Georgians for the Okefenokee, a statewide group that helped lead the effort to block the Twin Pines Minerals strip mining project.
