The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers held a virtual public hearing Wednesday afternoon on a proposal to mine for heavy minerals next to the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge in Southeast Georgia near the Florida border.
Alabama-based Twin Pines Minerals needs federal approval to dig for titanium dioxide on nearly 900 acres adjacent to the Okefenokee Swamp.
St. Marys Riverkeeper Anna Laws said Wednesday she’d like to see more environmental oversight included in the mining company’s plans. “The mining site drains on both sides into the St. Marys River so we want to make sure there is appropriate monitoring of all of the streams of the St. Marys and all of the adjacent wetlands.”
The public hearing was scheduled to end at 5 p.m. Wednesday, after which a recording of the meeting will be posted to the Army Corps’s Savannah District website.
The public comment period on the Twin Pines mining proposal ends May 28.
Contact reporter Cyd Hoskinson at choskinson@wjct.org, 904-358-6351 and on Twitter at @cydwjctnews.
