Lawmakers again propose to protect Okefenokee from mining

For the fourth year in a row, Georgia lawmakers have introduced legislation to protect the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge from mining on nearby Trail Ridge, a mineral rich area that forms a natural dam just east of the swamp.

On Thursday, state Rep. Darlene Taylor (R-Thomasville) introduced two bills, H.B. 562 to provide a 5-year moratorium on new mining on Trail Ridge, and H.B. 561, the Okefenokee Protection Act, to prohibit future mining in the same area. Coastal legislators Ron Stephens (R-Savannah) and Stephen Sainz (R-St. Marys) are the second and third co-sponsors of the bills, respectively.

Alabama-based Twin Pines Minerals plans to strip mine for titanium dioxide and zirconium in Charlton County. The company maintains that its mine won’t harm the swamp despite its footprint reaching within 3 miles of the edge of Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, the largest wildlife refuge in the Eastern U.S. 

Opponents, including the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and a group of academic hydrogeologists in the Southeast, disagree. They argue that mining will likely disrupt the flow of water in the massive blackwater swamp, risking drought and fire there.

The Georgia Environmental Protection Division released a draft mining permit to Twin Pines in February 2024. More than 70,000 comments on the draft flew into the regulatory agency, which has not issued a final decision.

The previous three iterations of the Okefenokee Protection Act failed to make it out of the Natural Resources Committee despite strong support. Last year’s version of the moratorium failed to get the approval it needed on the final day of the Georgia legislative session.

Of the two new bills, the moratorium is likelier to succeed, said Rena Ann Peck, executive director of Georgia Rivers. With 77 cosponsors, the moratorium has more support than did the original Okefenokee Protection Act.

“While the Okefenokee Act will not get a run, this moratorium horse has legs,” she said.  

Peck sees the moratorium as a compromise.

“It’s certainly a concession in that it’s not a ban on mining Trail Ridge in perpetuity — only for 5 years,” she said.

If passed, the moratorium would begin on July 1, 2025. It would prohibit state regulators from accepting any new applications for mining permits. But it would not prevent Twin Pines from mining its 582-acre demonstration mine if the permit already in process is finalized.

Twin Pines President Steve Ingle wrote in a prepared statement that while his company’s plans are not affected by the proposed legislation, he opposes any shutdown of mining.

“We oppose any moratorium, and the people who will be working for us — who would have to be let go — should oppose it too,” he wrote. “We have every right to mine our property so long as the mining can be done safely without hurting the swamp. EPD will not issue a permit if it is not safe. Our opponents resorting to legislation, rather than attempting to substantiate the talking points they have used to oppose our project, speaks volumes about the merits of their position.”

The Georgia Conservancy, which led a failed effort for a three-year moratorium last year, was still reviewing the details of the new proposals Friday morning.

“Georgia Conservancy led the effort to advance a moratorium approach to concerns around the Okefenokee Swamp in the 2024 legislative session through Senate Bill 132, which unanimously passed the House,” Executive Director Katherine Moore emailed The Current. “We are interested in understanding more about the current bills and their ability to create a desired pause in mining activity on Trail Ridge, while a more comprehensive and permanent solution still needs to be secured.”

Swamp supporters are quietly hopeful that land along Trail Ridge can be protected by public or private entities instead of being mined. It happened before, when public pressure persuaded DuPont Corp. to back off its mining plans and donate 16,000 acres to the Conservation Fund in 2003.

Several recent developments point toward a possible conservation solution. In early January, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service expanded by 22,000 acres the potential boundaries of the refuge, setting the stage for the refuge to acquire land from willing sellers in the enlarged area. Also in January, the outgoing head of the USFWS, which manages the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, wrote to Gov. Brian Kemp reiterating the risks of mining and urging Georgia to “protect this unique swamp ecosystem.” The quest to achieve prestigious UN World Heritage Site status for the Okefenokee has also made progress. The U.S. Department of the Interior officially nominated the site for the honor in December.

For swamp supporter Josh Marks, an Atlanta-based attorney who heads up Georgians for the Okefenokee and who helped fend off DuPont’s mining efforts more than 20 years ago, it’s up to Georgia’s top leadership to decide the fate of the Okefenokee.

“It’s great to see the legislature speaking out once again for the swamp in such an overwhelmingly bipartisan way,” he wrote in an email to The Current. “But the question is whether Gov. Kemp and Speaker Burns will finally follow the science, law, and the will of the people as reflected by the legislature and allow a vote, or will be governed by the campaign contributions they have received from Twin Pines Minerals, (mining company) Chemours and (Charlton landowner) Joe Hopkins and deny votes for a 4th year in a row.   Hopefully it will be the former.”