At a Congressional subcommittee hearing last week, U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter (R-St. Simons) scolded federal wildlife officials for voicing concerns about the effects of proposed mining near the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge.
“There is a mining project right outside the Okefenokee Wildlife Refuge,” Carter said at the hearing. “It is not within the refuge it is outside, I want to make sure that we understand that it is not under Fish & Wildlife jurisdiction. But over the last year, your agency has tried to insert itself in the state process, even though there isn’t a federal nexus.”
The Okefenokee lies almost entirely within Carter’s Coastal Georgia district. Carter is not a member of the House Natural Resources Committee but waived into the May 16 oversight hearing of the Water, Wildlife and Fisheries Subcommittee to ask his questions. He appears at the 2:58:08 mark in this video.
Alabama-based Twin Pines Minerals has applied for permits from the Georgia Environmental Protection Division to strip mine for titanium dioxide and other minerals in an area that comes within less than three miles of the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge. More than 77,000 comments, including one from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, flowed into EPD about the permit application. Leading academic hydrologists as well as federal hydrologists say the mine risks altering the flow of water into the swamp, increasing the risk of drought and fire. Twin Pines insists its modeling offers assurance the project can move forward without harming the swamp.
EPD continues to evaluate the permit application.
At over 400,000 acres, the Okefenokee is the largest wildlife refuge east of the Mississippi. The Interior Department’s U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service manages the blackwater swamp, and has begun the process to nominate it for United Nations World Heritage status, a designation Carter, along with Sen. Jon Ossoff (D- Ga) has publicly supported.
At the hearing, Carter said he wasn’t “taking up for the project.”
“I’m not entering an opinion one way or the other,” he said.
But he objected to two specific documents from federal officials. First up was a December 2022 letter from U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland. Read the letter here.
“Interior Secretary Haaland wrote an unsolicited letter – unsolicited- to Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, not to allow the mine to proceed,” Carter told U.S. Fish & Wildlife Director Martha Williams at the hearing. “That to me is overreach of the Secretary’s authority and without legal basis.”
But Carter didn’t mention that at least one top Georgia regulatory official welcomed the input from Haaland. Then-EPD Director Rick Dunn praised a letter from Haaland and one from FWS as he gave an update on the status of the mining project to the Georgia Department of Natural Resources Board.
“It’s great to have them engage particularly in all the technical aspects of the application so that was good news,” Dunn told the DNR Board at its December 2022 meeting. “It’s our hope and I think their desire that they will provide scientific expertise on some of the issues we are considering. So they will be participating not as a regulator but as an interested part of the public that is commenting.”
Then-Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt is widely credited with helping to derail a previous effort by DuPont to mine near the Okefenokee, famously telling reporters in 1997 “Titanium is a common mineral, while the Okefenokee is a very uncommon swamp.”
In her 2022 letter, Haaland outlined Interior’s interest in protecting the Okefenokee, including as a cultural resource for the Muscogee (Creek) Nation.
“The proposed mining activity in this area poses an unacceptable risk to the long-term hydrology and future of the swamp ecosystem and these cultural values,” Haaland wrote. “The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has communicated these concerns before and intends to submit further information outlining these serious consequences if the State moves forward with the permitting process. We are not alone in this assessment, as some of the preeminent experts on this ecosystem and hydrology at the University of Georgia have also raised the alarm about the threat that this type of mining activity in this area poses to the swamp.”
Carter also criticized an FAQ published by Fish & Wildlife in April. Read the FAQ here.
“Now, the Fish & Wildlife Service last month, has sent out what I would consider to be a propaganda document that is disguised as a fact sheet opposing this project,” Carter said, waving a printout of the two-page document.
Williams responded that she wasn’t aware of the flyer, but, “The Fish and Wildlife Service does oppose an activity that negatively impacts the water rights and the refuge that’s the only — as you know — is the only one of its kind in this country.”
Carter did not respond to a request from The Current for comment.
Despite Carter’s objection to what he calls federal overreach, the last question on the Fish & Wildlife FAQ clearly points to the state’s decision-making role: “Where can more information be found on the Twin Pines Mining Project and the permit process? The decision to issue final permits for Twin Pines Mine is with the Georgia Environmental Protection Division (GAEPD). https://epd.georgia.gov/twin-pines.”
The Tide brings regular notes and observations on news and events by The Current staff.