DNR quiet on Okefenokee-related permit

– October 25, 2023 –

Good morning. We have updates on several ongoing Coastal Georgia issues this week, including Spaceport Camden, electric vehicles and right whales. And then there’s the issue of mining near the Okefenokee, where it’s the absence of an update that’s noteworthy. Nature may abhor a vacuum, but the Board of Natural Resources didn’t in this case.

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DNR mum on mining permit

The 19-member Board of Natural Resources met Tuesday in Savannah at the headquarters of the Savannah Economic Development Authority, the kind of setting familiar to most board members, who come from business and industry.

In the audience sat representatives from Georgia River Network, the Ogeechee Riverkeeper, One Hundred Miles and Georgia Interfaith Power & Light. They were listening for an update about Alabama-based Twin Pines Minerals’ proposed titanium strip mine near the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge. They didn’t get one.

Although the Environmental Protection Division has been evaluating the company’s mining land use plan since January, EPD Director Jeff Cown didn’t mention the Okefenokee in his brief report. Board members didn’t bring it up.

After the meeting, Cown said only that the matter was “still under review.” Also afterward, Board Chairman Dwight Davis said the proposed World Heritage Site designation for the Okefenokee would not be a factor in the Environmental Protection Division’s permitting process. “We are most concerned about reaching the right decision to protect the Okefenokee,” he said. “I think that World Heritage designation is worthwhile and an added benefit and we’re in favor of it. But if our focus is reaching the right decision to protect the swamp then everything else will flow.”

An Atlanta-area board did discuss the Okefenokee Tuesday. The Dekalb County Board of Commissioners unanimously passed a resolution expressing support for the Okefenokee Swamp. Dekalb’s action follows similar resolutions passed by Ware, Clinch and Echols Counties and the cities of Valdosta, Waycross, Homeland and St. Marys that have expressed opposition to the mining proposal.

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Spaceport suit scrubbed

Camden County has failed in its bid to recoup some of the millions it spent to develop a spaceport that voters ultimately rejected, The Current’s Mary Landers reports.

Last year, the county filed suit against Union Carbide in federal court for the Southern District of Georgia in Brunswick, claiming “unjust enrichment” and seeking a return of up to $2.64 million associated with its option to buy the chemical giant’s 4,000-acre property in Camden as a commercial rocket launch site. The county also made a claim for legal fees.

Judge Lisa Godbey Wood rejected both claims, dimissing the suit Oct. 12. Camden, with an assist from attorneys charging up to $750 an hour, had argued that there was no valid contract because the referendum result retroactively invalidated the option agreement. Wood wasn’t having it.

“While the Referendum stripped the County of its authority to proceed forward with the Option Contract, it did not retroactively strip the County of its authority to enter into the Option Agreement in the first place,” she wrote. 

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EV fleets

State and local governments in Georgia could save more than $312 million over the next decade by switching their vehicle fleets to electric, a study by the group Environment America suggests. That kind of cash has at least one Georgia lawmaker eying incentives to push fleet managers toward EVs, as Capitol Beat’s Dave Williams reports. Robert Gordon, the manager of DeKalb’s vehicle fleet, said his county currently owns 37 electric vehicles and has 85 more on order for delivery by the end of the year.

The only thing holding other fleet managers back is a fear of change, Gordon said last week during a webinar sponsored by Environment Georgia. “And I don’t know that people are against electric but they’re against change, and especially in a government agency,” he said.

Savannah is already over that fear. The city operates more than 30 electric vehicles, Interim Sustainability Director Alicia Brown told The Current.

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Also noted:

• About 80% of ships subject to speed restrictions to protect endangered North Atlantic right whales are going too fast at some point in the speed zones, Oceana reported last week. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration tallies the data differently and told Reuters that for 80% of their transit time these ships are in compliance. Either way, ship strikes remain a threat to the existence of these whales, which give birth off the coast of Georgia. NOAA is expected to release expanded speed restrictions by the end of the year, but Oceana told The Current that enforcement is an issue. NOAA issued fines in only 53 cases, averaging less than $17,000 each, in the 2022-2023 migration and calving season, according to Oceana.

• Two Coastal Georgia organizations are grant recipients for environmental justice programs of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Grant amounts are not yet finalized. Glynn Environmental Coalition will work with other local groups to sample for air toxics and sulfur compounds in Brunswick, including at industry fencelines. The city of Savannah will work on an energy efficiency and workforce training program designed to serve households that don’t qualify for the free, ratepayer-funded program available through Georgia Power.

• Chatham County last week moved forward with a pilot project that seeks to install solar panels on four county facilities, including the county jail and the aquatic center. The county expects to issue a request for proposals next month.

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If you have feedback, questions, concerns, or just like what you see, let us know at staff@thecurrentga.org.

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