Expanding on swamp column
To the editor:
Kudos to Dick Yarbrough for his outstanding column in last week’s edition about the Okefenokee Swamp and the dangerous threat posed to it by mining.
Several of his points bear repeating.
First, he indicates that Georgia regulators have finally realized the Twin Pines proposal to strip mine along the swamp’s edge is both scientifically and legally defective and should be rejected. If correct, that would be an enormous victory for Georgians who have unanimously voiced their opposition to this terrible project since 2019.
Second, he correctly highlights the outsized influence of local timber owner Joe Hopkins, the county’s largest landowner who has been pushing for mining at the Okefenokee for 30 years.
Back in the 1990s, he leased 23,000 acres of his land along the swamp’s edge to DuPont Chemical for a massive strip mine.
When I and others successfully fought that project and DuPont abandoned the effort, Hopkins didn’t give up. Through campaign contributions to Gov. (Brian) Kemp, he has helped keep the Twin Pines project alive, block overwhelmingly popular bills at the state legislature that would protect the swamp from mining and is now actively pushing for DuPont’s successor, Chemours, to buy Twin Pines and launch a massive project that would expand onto his property.
Third, Chemours has an atrocious track record.
Not only has it been forced to pay more than $500 million for polluting water around the country with its “forever chemicals,” including in northwest Georgia, but it has repeatedly broken the law at its mining sites in Florida.
In Florida, it has polluted the soil with iron and radioactive particles, and violated rules governing wastewater toxicity at its mineral processing facility in Georgia.
Chemours needs to follow its corporate predecessor’s example and publicly commit to avoid the Okefenokee.
Fourth, the federal government’s expansion of the acquisition boundary at the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge is a critical step toward the only viable solution, namely, the acquisition of the lands along the swamp’s edge for conservation.
But the only way for such acquisition to realistically happen is for landowners like Hopkins and Twin Pines to get religion about the value of their acreage.
They don’t deserve and shouldn’t expect to receive a minerals valuation for their land if the minerals can’t be extracted. And, the only way to convince them is for Gov. Kemp to follow the science, law and the overwhelming will of Georgia’s citizens and deny the permits for mining.
Let’s hope Dick’s sources turn out to be right and the state is poised to send Twin Pines back to Alabama. If so, it will be a wonderful New Year’s gift to Georgia.
Josh Marks Atlanta President of Georgians for the Okefenokee
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