GEORGIA — As the year comes to a close, and a new presidential administration is set to lead Washington in January, there’s a final push to prevent a titanium mining project from getting closer to Georgia’s Okefenokee Swamp.
Right now, officials are considering a plan to extend the swamp’s boundary and to include the site.
Channel 2′s Michael Doudna spoke to advocates for protecting the swamp, who said the time to act is now, or never.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is currently accepting public comment on a proposal that would extend the swamp boundary.
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Despite the proposal process to do so being underway, some advocates fear time is ticking as a change in president could change the federal government’s position in support of protecting the swamp.
The Okefenokee Swamp is more than 400,000 acres of nature refuge, providing peace for animals and solace for people.
“You just don’t find it nowhere else, so why would you want to endanger it?” Deborah Reed told Channel 2 Action News previously.
In February, advocates pushed to stop the titanium dioxide mine at the refuge’s border. If U.S. Fish and Wildlife is able to extend the refuge’s border to include the land where the proposed mine would go, it would “permanently protect the integrity of the swamp,” advocates said.
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Despite the progress they’ve been trying to make, they feel that now is the time to act, before President-elect Donald Trump takes office, saying he has a history of rolling back environmental regulations.
“This could be the last best chance that we have to get the federal government to lead at protecting the Okefenokee,” Josh Marks, President Georgians for the Okefenokee, said.
While advocates of the plan claim the titanium dioxide mine could cause irreparable damage to the swamp, Twin Pines Minerals, LLC, the mining company, said they have spent tens of millions of dollars to prove their process would not hurt the swamp.
A statement shared with Channel 2 Action News in February said in part “the scientists who publicly opposes the project had four plus years to present credible science to back their claims and never did”
However, Marks said that the mining plan was something “you wouldn’t do it at the Grand Canyon, you wouldn’t do it at Yellow Stone, so in my eyes, this place is the same.”
While the federal government decides if it will expand the swamp’s borders or not, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp also has a choice on whether or not to grant the mining permits, which could have a big impact on the cost of the land and the future of any mines there.
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