Great video by Georgia River Network asking you to help save the Okefenokee Swamp from a proposed strip mine:
Here’s the video:
Video: Save the Okefenokee; Stop the Mine!
Video by Georgia River Network, thanks to GRN E.D. Rena Peck Stricker.
Gators need water. Continue reading
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 7, 2020, Hahira, Georgia — In an apparently unprecedented move, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is holding a “virtual Public Meeting” about a mining application. Suwannee Riverkeeper calls on everyone who can to join this online Public Meeting, for at least a few minutes between 2 and 5 PM on Wednesday, May 13, 2020. This will help show there is substantial controversy about the proposed titanium mine on the doorstep of the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge. That could cause the Corps to at least require an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), or maybe even to deny the permit.
“The Corps needs to know people consider the beauty of the Okefenokee Swamp, and the birding, boating, fishing, and hunting nearby that it provides, to be too important to risk with a strip mine far too close to the Swamp,” said Suwannee Riverkeeper John S. Quarterman. “Everyone down to the Gulf of Mexico should be concerned about this strip mine at the headwaters of the the Suwannee River, and east on the St. Marys River to the Atlantic. Way west at Valdosta, Georgia, exits from I-75 say Okefenokee Swamp this way, so the economic benefits of the Swamp are widespread. People visit the Swamp and the Suwannee from all over the world, and the public outcry needs to be just as widespread.”
![[Mine to Gulf and Ocean]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2020-04-13--usace-tpm-extension-meeting/map-mine-to-seas.jpg)
Mine to Gulf and Ocean in the WWALS
map of all public landings and boat ramps in the Suwannee River Basin.
Social media event: facebook, meetup. But remember to sign up for the actual Army Corps virtual Public Meeting (see below).
To attend the virtual Public Meeting, first you must RSVP by emailing:
To: CESAS-SpecialProjects@usace.army.mil
Subject: “RSVP for 13 MAY Public Meeting TPM”
Make sure that you include your full name, email address, and contact phone number with area code.
Before the meeting, you will receive the meeting link and security code. Just click the link and follow the prompts.
The meeting will use the WebEx platform, so go ahead and pick up an app for that, or try out the web interface on your laptop or desktop computer.
All participant lines will be muted in order to maintain audio quality. Moderators will direct questions to the appropriate person during the question and answer session.
Simply joining the meeting will be significant. You can ask your question the WebEx chat, by voice if they call on you. Please at least ask the Corps for an EIS, or to deny the permit application.
You can ask anything, or just say you oppose the mine. If you have a specific logistical or scientific question, please ask it, in such a way that it requires a specific answer. For example: Continue reading
Six weeks more from the Army Corps, less than the two or four months requested by various parties. That’s still better than no extension for public comments on the re-application by Twin Pines Minerals, LLC, to mine far too close to the Okefenokee Swamp, the headwaters of the Suwannee and St. Marys Rivers, above the Floridan Aquifer.
Plus, before the new comment deadline of May 28, 2020:
![[Suwannee River]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2020-04-10--tpm-watersheds/suwannee-river.jpg)
Twin Pines Minerals proposed mine site, Okefenokee NWR, and Suwannee River
The Savannah District will hold a virtual Public Meeting for the Twin Pines project on May 13, 2020 from 2:00 PM to 5:00 PM EDT. The meeting will consist of a formal presentation followed by a question and answer session. The meeting will be recorded and published to the Savannah District public website.
Published by the Corps at 4:35 PM on the original deadline of today, here is the Public Notice of Extension on the Corps’ website, and here it is in PDF.
For far more about this bad mining proposal and the organizations that support the Okefenokee Swamp and oppose anything that would harm it, see:
wwals.net/issues/titanium-mining/
-jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®
You can join this fun and work by becoming a WWALS member today!
On Friday, Waterkeepers Florida, a regional entity composed of all 13 Waterkeeper organizations working in the State of Florida to protect and restore our water resources across over 45,000 square miles of watershed, which is home to over 15 million Floridians, wrote to both the Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. EPA asking for more third-party comment on the application by Twin Pines Minerals, LLC, to strip mine for titanium near the Okefenokee Swamp, which is the headwaters of the St. Marys and Suwannee Rivers.
Today’s the comment deadline, and today you can
also write such letters about Application Number SAS-2018-00554-SP-HAR.
Here’s how:
https://wwals.net/issues/titanium-mining/#howtocomment
See also Continue reading
Comment by this Monday, April 13, 2020, if you don’t want any of these creeks, rivers, or the Okefenokee Swamp affected by this strip mine, or the Floridan Aquifer, in Georgia or in Florida.
The Twin Pines Minerals strip mine site drains west from Trail Ridge into the River Styx, into the Okefenokee Swamp, and to the St. Marys River, which becomes the border between Georgia and Florida. On the east, it drains into Boone Creek and into the St. Marys River. If it affects the Swamp, it will affect the Suwannee River, which runs through Georgia and Florida to the Gulf of Mexico.
Please go ahead and tell the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers why you don’t want this strip mine near the Swamp.
You can also ask for an extension of the public comment deadline, and for public hearings in Georgia and Florida. Here is the Suwannee Riverkeeper extension and hearings request for WWALS.
The Rule the Corps is following for comments says the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) can require any other affected state to comment. So you can ask EPA to ask Florida to comment. Here is our request for that. Here’s a simple version you can use:
[Your Name or Your Organization Name] requests the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), pursuant to 33 CFR § 325.2, (b), regarding permit application SAS-2018-0054 to determine that the mining activities of the subject Application may affect the quality of the waters of the state of Florida and to notify the state of Florida, the district engineer, and the applicant that Florida ‘has 60 days from receipt of EPA’s notice to determine if the proposed discharge will affect the quality of its waters so as to violate any water quality requirement in such state, to notify EPA and the district engineer in writing of its objection to permit issuance, and to request a public hearing.’
The inset map is from Figure 66 in the TPM application. TPM didn’t label the waterways, but that’s the River Styx where it says MSW-1, and Boone Creek where it says MSW-4. Both lead to the St. Marys River, which becomes the Georgia-Florida state line. The River Styx joins the St. Marys in the Okefenokee Swamp, which is the headwaters of the Suwannee River. Continue reading
WWALS requests the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) “EPA regarding permit application SAS-2018-0054 to determine that the mining activities of the subject Application may affect the quality of the waters of the state of Florida and to notify the state of Florida, the district engineer, and the applicant that Florida ‘has 60 days from receipt of EPA’s notice to determine if the proposed discharge will affect the quality of its waters so as to violate any water quality requirement in such state, to notify EPA and the district engineer in writing of its objection to permit issuance, and to request a public hearing.’”
![[2020-03-30--WWALS-EPA-TPM-FDEP-comment-hearing-0001]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2020-03-30--wwals-epa-tpm-fdep/2020-03-30--WWALS-EPA-TPM-FDEP-comment-hearing-0001.jpg)
2020-03-30–WWALS-EPA-TPM-FDEP-comment-hearing-0001
We quoted from the Rule the Army Corps says it is using in its comment period for the re-application by an Alabama company to strip mine for titanium near the Okefenokee Swamp, which is the headwaters of the Suwannee and St. Marys Rivers, and interchanges water with the Floridan Aquifer, all of which affects Florida.
You can also send a letter like this to the EPA, asking for comment from the state of Florida and a public hearing in Florida.
Or you can send a comment to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers requesting a 120-day extension of their ridiculously brief comment deadline of April 14, 2020, and public hearings, like WWALS did.
Why not both?
We urge everyone else to also send the Army Corps a comment letter asking for an extension of the comment deadline and for public hearings.
For more things you can do to oppose this bad mining application, see How to Comment.
![[Map: TPM Mine, Okefenokee Swamp, Suwannee River]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2020-03-13--tpm-re-application-public-notice-usace/map-mine-swamp-river.jpg)
Map: TPM Mine, Okefenokee Swamp, Suwannee River
in the WWALS map of
All Public Landings in the Suwannee River Basin.
The TPM mine is marked in the right center by the highlighted crossed hammers,
due north of the line of four Chemours titanium mines in north Florida.
Below is the text of the letter WWALS just sent to the Corps as a PDF.
March 19, 2020
To: Col. Daniel Hibner, Commander, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Savannah District
Attention: Ms. Holly Ross, holly.a.ross@usace.army.mil,
CESAS-SpecialProjects@usace.army.mil
1104 North Westover Boulevard, Suite 9, Albany, Georgia 31707Cc: Stephen Wiedl, Wetlands Unit, stephen.wiedl@dnr.ga.gov
Georgia Department of Natural Resources, Environmental Protection Division,
Water Protection Branch, 7 Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive, Atlanta, GA 30334Re: Applicant: Twin Pines Minerals, LLC, Application Number: SAS-2018-00554
Dear Colonel Hibner,
Regarding permit application SAS-2018-0054 by Twin Pines Minerals, LLC, of Birmingham, Alabama, Suwannee Riverkeeper for WWALS Watershed Coalition (WWALS) asks the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) to extend the public comment period and to hold public hearings, as detailed at the end of this letter.
Review of the current 219-page Application and the hundreds of pages of appendices is not practicable in Continue reading
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Hahira, Georgia, March 16, 2020 — The coalition of supporters of the Okefenokee Swamp against anything that would harm it stands ready to stop the new strip mine application, same as the old one.
Twin Pines Minerals (TPM) of Birmingham, Alabama, in its new application claims its proposed titanium strip mine less than three miles from the Okefenokee Swamp would be on a “reduced mining area,” which is actually 86% of what they proposed last time. They say they want to do a “demonstration” mine.
![[Figure 1: Location of the Proposed Saunders Demonstration Mine]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2020-03-13--tpm-re-application-public-notice-usace/tpm-public-notice-0006.jpg)
Figure 1: Location of the Proposed Saunders Demonstration Mine
PDF
Suwannee Riverkeeper John S. Quarterman says, “Let their foot in the door and it will be even harder to get rid of them later. TPM is under a Florida Consent Order along with Chemours for violations at four mines due south in north Florida. Chemours now wants a fifth Florida titanium mine on Trail Ridge. Why would we think TPM would stop with just a nibble of Trail Ridge in Georgia? Our Okefenokee Swamp with its fishing, boating, birding, and hunting nearby, is much more important than any mine, especially since it is the headwaters of the Suwannee River and the St Marys River.”
Despite TPM’s assurances, the miners have not proven their mining would not affect the groundwater, the underlying Floridan Aquifer, surface streams, or the Okefenokee Swamp.
Their application form proposes to mine 1041.7 acres, the same size tract as in their application of last year that they retracted in early January of this year. But their actual application says “TPM now wishes to conduct a demonstration mining project for a reduced mining area of approximately 898 acres.”
86% of the original acreage is not much reduced. And how is that just a demonstration?
No doubt you will hear more about that and other problems with the miners’ application from the coalition supporting the Swamp and opposing anything that would harm it. That coalition includes a wide range of organizations, Continue reading
The miners didn’t go away from their site near the Okefenokee Swamp after they withdrew their permit application, so expect another application soon.
![[Equipment zoom]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2020-02-13--tpm-eq-site/20200212_161515.jpg)
Photo: John S. Quarterman for WWALS, Equipment zoom 2020-02-12.
The miners said they would be back, in Mining company withdraws permit application for project near Okefenokee by Nedra Rhone, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, February 9, 2020,
“In an effort to be even more conservative in our approach than we were in our initial application, we have agreed with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to reduce the size of the permit area and resubmit new documentation for Continue reading
They could resubmit at any time. But for now, the Alabama mining company that is already under a Florida Consent Order along with Chemours for four mines in north Florida, Twin Pines Minerals (TPM) has withdrawn its application to mine in Georgia near the Okefenokee Swamp, the headwaters of the Suwannee and St. Marys Rivers.
![[Tribal Grounds west along GA 94 to TPM equipment, 12:38:38, 30.5257540, -82.0411100]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2019-10-05--equipment-tpm/triba-grounds-to-TPM-equipment.jpg)
Photo: John S. Quarterman for https://wwals.net/blog/?p=51549&preview=trueWWALS, Tribal Grounds west along GA 94 to TPM equipment, 12:38:38, 30.5257540, -82.0411100, on Southwings flight for Suwannee Riverkeeper, pilot Allen Nodorft, 2019-10-05.
Nedra Rhone, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, February 7, 2020, BREAKING: Mining company withdraws permit application for project near Okefenokee,
Twin Pines Minerals, the Alabama-based company that hopes to mine acres of land near the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, has withdrawn its permit application, said Billy E. Birdwell, spokesman of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for the Savannah district.
Continue reading
![[Jobs]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2020-04-12--grn-oke-usace-tpm-video/jobs.jpg)
![[WKFL logos]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2020-04-10--wfkl-usace-tpm/Twin-Pines-Letter-to-EPA-4.10.20-0002.jpg)
![[River Styx]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2020-04-10--tpm-watersheds/river-styx.jpg)