– Jan. 24, 2024 –
Good morning! Today we have a long-awaited resolution to an issue related to the Okefenokee, though the fine issued Tuesday to Twin Pines Minerals may raise more questions than it answers. Georgia Power was also in the hot seat recently, with regulators, student activists and the Department of Defense questioning its request to use more fossil fuels. Finally, we have a look at how citizens and activists in Brunswick are following up on a chemical exposure study.
Questions, tips or concerns? Send me a note at mary.landers@thecurrentga.org
EPD fines mining company
The Georgia Environmental Protection Division on Tuesday issued a $20,000 penalty to Alabama-based Twin Pines Minerals, the company with plans to mine near the Okefenokee.
Regulators say the company failed to follow state law regarding the drilling of hundreds of boreholes used to collect data for the project. Twin Pines rejected any wrongdoing. The company will pay the fine, and it signed the consent order “to put this matter behind us and move our project forward.”
Josh Marks, an environmental attorney and president of Georgians for the Okefenokee, said the EPD should toss out the data that was collected without the required supervision from a professional geologist.
“The proper remedy in any situation like this, but especially when Georgia’s greatest natural treasure is at stake, would be to force the company to go back and repeat all of the sampling with the requisite supervision and resubmit the application from scratch,” he wrote to The Current.
The EPD continues to review Twin Pines’ mining permit application. It’s unclear if the penalty will affect that process.
Read the full story here.
Brunswick faces its pollution
Emory University researchers continue to analyze the results of a study begun last spring of contaminants like PCBs and mercury in blood samples from Brunswick area residents. At a community meeting last week, they offered a preliminary look at risk factors for high exposure while also revealing they intend to expand the study to include possibly five times more than the original 100 participants.
With many of the county’s four federal Superfund sites and 12-state designated cleanup sites near historically Black neighborhoods, the issue is one of environmental justice, as well as human and environmental health. Along with Emory researchers, local advocates are looking forward at next steps, ranging from Dr. Kavanaugh Chandler’s call for recognition and treatment of pollution-related illness to Alice Keyes of One Hundred Miles urging citizens to push state and federal agencies to assess the harm done to the local environment.
Read the full story from The Current’s Mary Landers here.
If you’d like a better understanding of some of Glynn’s legacy pollution sources, the Glynn Environmental Coalition is offering a Superfund site tour on Saturday, Feb. 3. See details here.
Pushback on Ga. Power
Recent hearings held by the Georgia Public Service Commission were unusual in several respects. First, the timing. Georgia Power is asking the regulators to update its three-year plan after only two years, saying a surge in industrial demand necessitates it. Second, the players. Along with the oft-present environmental and consumer advocacy groups scrutinizing Georgia Power’s plan to burn more fossil fuel, the Department of Defense, student activists and even the panel of six regulators themselves criticized the plans.
An Army attorney questioned how the military would be able to meet clean energy goals at its Georgia bases if the utility increased its reliance on oil and gas. More than a dozen high school and college students urged the commission to reject these planet-warming fossil fuels.
High school senior Evelyn Ford told the commissioners they were the only five people in Georgia who could make the utility do the right thing. “Please, fulfill your duty,” she said. “Act to keep us safe.”
Read the full story from WABE/Grist’s Emily Jones here.
A decision on the matter is expected in April, after more hearings next month.
Also noted:
• The Georgia Department of Natural Resources wants residents to be on the lookout for blue land crabs, an invasive species that while not always blue — the females can be gray — does live on land. Commenters on Facebook were quick to note that yes, they’re edible. The public is encouraged to take photos and report sightings of blue land crabs at GeorgiaWildlife.com/ANS.
• Georgia’s coastal counties are slowly increasing their adoption of electric vehicles. Since October, EV registrations have increased at a rate of more than one per day in Chatham County, which as of Monday counted 1,577 electric vehicles registered, according to the Georgia Department of Revenue.
• There’s a massive coral reef off Georgia. A paper recently published in the scientific journal Geomatics names the series of cold-water coral mounds running offshore from Miami to Charleston as the largest deep-sea coral reef habitat ever discovered. The corals cover an area larger than Vermont.
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Twin Pines Minerals fined $20K for exploratory work
As mining company fined, the data used to model impacts of the project on the Okefenokee Swamp are questioned.
Researchers ask to expand study of Brunswick pollutants’ effects on residents
Researchers are finalizing their analysis of chemical exposures while also seeking to expand the study
Regulators, Pentagon, student activists push back on Georgia Power’s energy plans
Georgia energy regulators this week expressed skepticism toward Georgia Power’s request to buy and generate more energy to meet what the company is calling unprecedented growth in commercial demand.
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