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A2 u.s. news
Thursday 22 OcTOber 2020
Trump environmental rollback spurs mining near Okefenokee

By RUSS BYNUM an immediate outcry. The
Associated Press refuge covers nearly 630
SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — A square miles (1,631 square
mining company said Tues- kilometers) near the Geor-
day that it plans to dig for gia-Florida state line. Its
minerals without a federal tea-colored waters, cy-
permit at the edge of the press forests and flooded
vast wildlife refuge in the prairies draw an estimated
Okefenokee Swamp, a big 600,000 visitors each year.
step for a once-embattled As the Army Corps weighed
project that's now benefit- concerns from conserva-
ing from the Trump adminis- tionists and government
tration's rollback of environ- wildlife agencies, Twin Pines
mental rules. withdrew its application in
For more than a year, Twin February. A month later it
Pines Minerals pursued a submitted a new plan that
permit under the federal significantly shrunk the proj-
Clean Water Act to mine ect.
less than 4 miles (6.4 kilo- The nearly 600-acre foot-
meters) from the home of print Twin Pines announced
the largest U.S. wildlife ref- Tuesday is even smaller, less
uge east of the Mississippi than half the size the com-
River. Conservationists wor- In this Thursday, April 3, 1997 file photo, the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge in southeast Ga., pany originally proposed.
is is seen.
ry mining could cause ir- Associated Press The Army Corps reassessed
reparable harm to a fragile certain wetlands at Twin
ecosystem that serves as a tected under federal rules affected," Ingle said, "no that's made waterways Pines' request after Trump's
habitat for alligators, bald recently revised at the di- federal permits will be re- more vulnerable to pollu- new clean-water rules took
eagles and other protect- rection of the White House. quired." tion and destruction from effect in June. The agency
ed species. Twin Pines President Steve Allowing the mining project development, industry and confirmed Tuesday that,
The Army Corps of Engi- Ingle said in a statement to bypass federal permit- farms. under the rules change,
neers, the agency han- Tuesday that his company ting threatens "a conserva- "These decisions are being the tract would no longer
dling the permit request, is moving ahead with plans tion tragedy," said Christian made across the country, require a federal permit.
recently concluded most to mine on nearly 600 acres Hunt of the environmental and we're only starting to "This property now has a
of the wetlands that would (243 hectares) near the group Defenders of Wildlife. see the consequences," large, contiguous, mine-
be drained or otherwise Georgia-Florida line. Others called the decision said Geoff Gisler, a senior able area in the center of
affected by the proposed "Because waters of the an early consequence of attorney for the Southern it because those wetlands
mine are no longer pro- United States will not be a sweeping policy change Environmental Law Center. have now been removed
"I think what we'll see over from our jurisdiction," said
the next several months, Jason O'Kane, regulatory
until this rule is thrown out or chief for the Army Corps'
changes, is that we're go- Savannah District, which
ing to lose the streams and handled the Twin Pines per-
wetlands that we depend mit application.
on." The Fish and Wildlife Ser-
In January, heads of the vice said in a letter to the
Environmental Protection Army Corps a year ago
Agency and the Army that there was "great un-
Corps signed the policy certainty" surrounding how
change narrowing the mining near the swamp's
types of waterways that edge might affect its ability
qualify for federal protec- to hold water.
tion under the half-century- "The Service cannot defini-
old Clean Water Act. tively say that the mining
President Donald Trump proposal will significantly
had long pushed for revi- affect the environment,"
sion of Obama-era rules ad- the Fish and Wildlife letter
opted in 2015, calling them said. "However, we have
overly burdensome on concerns that the pro-
builders, industry and farm- posed project could pose
ers. Environmental groups substantial risks for adverse
say the rollback allows pol- impacts to (the Okefeno-
lution of now-unprotected kee refuge) and the sur-
waterways and destruc- rounding environment that
tion of some wetlands that may be irreversible even
serve vital functions filtering with mitigation."
contaminants and provid- Ingle has long insisted his
ing buffers against flooding proposed mine would
of adjacent uplands. have a negligible impact
Twin Pines' proposal to mine on the swamp. All of the di-
for titanium dioxide outside rectly affected wetlands lie
the Okefenokee National outside the Okefenokee's
Wildlife Refuge caused boundaries.q