This coverage is made possible through a partnership between Grist and WABE, Atlanta’s NPR station.
Emotions ran high during a pair of public meetings last week discussing a plan to allow a company to mine for heavy minerals less than three miles from Georgia’s iconic Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, the country’s most intact swamp ecosystem.
“Please don’t let them mine what God has put for us here to enjoy, and generations beyond us,” said Sheila Carter, a former Okefenokee guide, to representatives from the Environmental Protection Division of Georgia’s Department of Natural Resources during a Thursday Zoom hearing. She was one of more than 70 people ranging from state representatives to high school students, who spoke out against the mine, which scientists warn could change the water level in the Okefenokee watershed.
The hours-long meetings were part of the 60-day public comment period on the Mining Land Use Plan drafted by the Twin Pines Minerals company. The vast majority of participants spoke in defense of... Read more
