Don’t get your hopes up, but a couple of bills have surfaced in the Legislature addressing the Georgia Environmental Protection Division (insert oxymoron here), approving Alabama-based Twin Pines Minerals to mine a 584-acre tract of Trail Ridge on the eastern flank of our Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge.
All this is for titanium oxide so that we never face the prospect of running out of toothpaste whitener.
House Bill 562, the Okefenokee Protection Act, would provide a five-year moratorium on new mining on Trail Ridge, and House Bill 561, the Okefenokee Protection Act, would prohibit future mining in the area. Neither bill would prevent Twin Pines from receiving permitting approval from the EPD bureaucrats. Still, the measures would hopefully prevent the expansion or consideration of future mines on Trail Ridge.
Rep. Darlene Taylor, R-Thomasville, is the lead sponsor of both bills and has backed previous legislative efforts concerning the Okefenokee.
The bills also list as sponsors Rep. Ron Stephens (R-Savannah), Rep. Steven Sainz (R-St. Marys), Rep. Debbie Buckner (D-Junction City), Rep. Gerald Greene (R-Cuthbert), and Rep. Carolyn Huley (D-Columbus). Notice something interesting? Bipartisanship. Democrats and Republicans. You don’t see much of that these days.
The Okefenokee Protection Act would prohibit EPD from issuing, modifying, or renewing mining permits on Trail Ridge after July 1. This bill is nearly identical to legislation proposed in past sessions that had bipartisan backing but failed to pass the House of Representatives.
The second bill, House Bill 562, would prevent EPD from considering new permits for mines on Trail Ridge or modifying existing ones until mid-2030. A similar bill in the last legislative session would have paused permitting for three years. That measure cleared the House but did not receive a vote in the Senate.
Both of these new bills have been assigned to the House Committee on Natural Resources and Environment led by Chair Lynn “The Sphinx” Smith (R-Newnan), who, despite bipartisan support, refused to let the Okefenokee Protection Act out of her committee last year, and then refused to tell us why. I hope whoever is pulling her strings will allow a different outcome in this session. Obviously, she is being told what to do.
Twin Pines’ public-be-damned President, Steve Ingle, issued a statement stating that the company opposes the new legislation and argues that it has “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,” Ingle continued. “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.”
Like me, you may have to read this sentence several times to see if it makes sense. I did. It doesn’t.
I discern that our elected officials are asking us to trust a group of faceless bureaucrats to do the right thing on our behalf and, in turn, to trust Twin Pines Minerals, whose track record is not quite stellar, to do the same. Opponents aren’t buying that idea.
Attorney Josh Marks, founder and managing partner of GreenMark Law, heads Georgians for the Okefenokee. Twenty-five years ago, he helped stop a similar mining effort by DuPont.
“They simply can’t be trusted and should not be allowed within 100 miles of the Okefenokee,” he said of Twin Pines Minerals. “The company has repeatedly broken the law on this project and in two other states, defaulted on its taxes at least twice, and is in default on at least two mortgages. The fact that they may be on the verge of getting a permit shows that EPD is either incapable or unwilling to do its job of protecting our environment.
“It’s long past time for Governor Kemp and Speaker Burns to allow the Okefenokee Protection Act, with its overwhelming bipartisan support, to be voted on and passed so that the swamp can be protected once and for all.”
I suggest you don't take your foot off the accelerator. Contact your local representative and let them know you support H.B. 561 and H.B. 562 and would like to know if they do, too. This will likely get you the generic “Thank you. Your views are important” blah-blah-blah response, but they will know you are paying close attention to what they will or will not do regarding this critically important issue.
Remember, this isn’t the Twin Pines’ Okefenokee or the EPD’s. It is ours. Let’s keep up the good fight.
Reach Dick Yarbrough at dick@dickyarbrough. comor at P.O. Box 725373, Atlanta, Ga. 31139.