Proposed Expansion Could be the Answer to Okefenokee Controversy

The election is over and, whether your side won or not, let’s all be grateful the nation is still standing and that all the political ads are gone and, hopefully, forgotten. Now, it is time to get back to the Okefenokee. Alabama-based Twin Pines Minerals, LLC, is still pushing for approval from Georgia’s Environmental Protection Division to drill for titanium dioxide on 582 acres atop Trail Ridge on the eastern edge of the Okefenokee.

In 25 years of churning out opinions on these pages, few issues have gotten more reader mail than this one. Almost unanimously, the responses have been indignant: Do not allow drilling in our Okefenokee. Then follows a question: What can we do to keep this from happening?

Usually, when citizen/voters are this much up in arms, they will get the attention of our intrepid public servants, but evidently not this time. Gov. Brian Kemp has been as silent as a fence post. I’m sure he has been busy getting Donald Trump elected and dealing with the aftermath of hurricane Helene – both of which he has done well – but his silence predates both events.

State Senate Majority Leader Steve Gooch, R-Dahlonega, issued the political equivalent of “Let ‘em eat cake,” saying that whether or not allowing Twin Pines and its spotty reputation to drill in our Okefenokee is a regulatory issue not a legislative one. I assume he thinks we all fell off the turnip truck together.

At least he said something. Rep. Lynn Smith, R-Newnan, chair of the House Natural Resources Committee that bottled up legislation that could have resolved the issue? She’s saying nothing. To my knowledge, she has ignored the readers that I suggested contact her.

So, what is going on here? Why the reluctance of those we elect to speak up? Open up your philosophy books, please, and turn to the section on irresistible force and immovable object. That, in my opinion, is what is going on. The irresistible force is composed of those who oppose the drilling project. One of the most vocal of which is attorney Josh Marks, president of Georgians for the Okefenokee and a leader of the successful fight against DuPont’s efforts to strip mine at the Okefenokee in the 1990s.

The immovable objects are landowners and their concern with private property rights and who are loathe to have those rights taken away. That includes attorney Joe Hopkins, president of Toledo Manufacturing in Charlton County, which own tens of thousands of acres in the county, including a 30,000-acre tract directly north of Twin Pines’ property. He says the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution includes due process of law before property can be taken away.

Rep. John Corbett, R-Lake Park, whose district includes the proposed mining area, said it plainly when he spoke against a bill that would prohibit future mining on Trail Ridge, “Let me explain why I won’t sign that bill: It walks all over private property rights,” Corbett said. “We’re taking somebody’s property and not compensating them.”

I have heard from both Marks and Hopkins and have been furnished boatloads of competing facts and figures on whether drilling would or would not harm the Okefenokee and environs. I have given each side its say to the consternation of the other.

Is there a way out of this impasse? Possibly. How about the potential for a public-private partnership? The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is proposing a boundary expansion for the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, adding 22,000 acres that would include the area owned by Twin Pines, LLC. If the proposal is approved, it would allow the agency to work with landowners in the area, including acquisitions or partnerships. There could be a pony in this pile for both sides.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is seeking public comment on the proposal and, unlike the see-no-evil, hearno- evil Georgia bunch, I suspect the agency will be glad to hear from you. Make your views known at: Okefenokee@ fws.gov. But hurry. You have until Monday, Nov. 18.

Hopefully, Gov. Kemp will halt the EPD’s review of Twin Pine Mineral’s permit application and give this proposal time to be sorted out. Otherwise, an Alabama-based company with a questionable reputation will continue to push for permission to mine our Okefenokee for toothpaste whitener in a process shrouded in secrecy while you and I will continue to be treated like political simpletons. Let’s hope we can find that middle ground for all concerned. It is past time.

You can reach Dick Yarbrough at dick@dickyarbrough.com or at P.O. Box 725373, Atlanta, Georgia 31139.