A plan to build a mine near Georgia’s Okefenokee Swamp could be coming up for public comment soon.
The head of the state Department of Natural Resources told the DNR board on Friday that the agency is waiting on answers to a few questions they had asked the company.
“If that response is adequate,” DNR director Richard Dunn told the board, the next step would be to put the land use plan for the mine out for public comment.
“The public, other state agencies, federal agencies may comment on any reports or things like that that we’ve relied upon in terms of evaluating their application,” he said.
Dunn said there would be at least one virtual public meeting to collect comments in order to get maximum participation.
The company, Twin Pines, proposed building a titanium mine near the Okefenokee in South Georgia in 2019. Critics say it could harm the swamp, which is a national wildlife refuge.
Federal oversight of the mining plan has seesawed.
Currently, it only needs state permits to proceed after the Trump Administration limited the scope of the Clean Water Act, meaning the project would not need environmental reviews from federal agencies.
The Biden Administration is working to change that. But just this week, the U.S. Supreme Court said it would take up a case that could also affect the water law.
Dunn also gave an update to the board on the state Environmental Protection Division’s largest-ever fine. The EPD is levying a $3 million fine against the owner of the Golden Ray, the car carrier that wrecked as it was leaving the Port of Brunswick in 2019.
The consent order levying the fine has now been finalized.
The ship’s owner, a multi-billion dollar South Korean company, can reduce the amount by doing other environmental projects in the area. Dunn said he’d like to see that happen.
The fine doesn’t rule out the possibility of a federal review of environmental damages.
The cleanup of the Golden Ray is almost complete. The ship itself is gone, but teams are still checking shorelines for oil and debris, and there are still rocks that had been piled around the wreck that need to be removed.
