2 House bills introduced to protect Okefenokee
ATLANTA (WSAV) — Two bills were introduced to the Georgia House Thursday with intentions of protecting the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge from mining.
The bills are aimed at Alabama-based Twin Pines Minerals' plan to strip mine for titanium dioxide, staurolite and zircon around three miles from the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge's Trail Ridge. The Trail Ridge is 'the ancient sand dune that serves as an earthen dam for the swamp,' GRN said, and is essential for hydrology in the Okefenokee and surrounding areas like the St. Mary River.
The mining project has been hotly contested since they started seeking permits from the Georgia Environmental Protection Division (EPD) in 2019.
House Bill 561 would prohibit future mining along the Okefenokee's Trail Ridge, a GRN spokesperson said. If passed, it would prohibit the director of the EPD 'from issuing, modifying, or renewing any permit or accepting any bond to conduct surface mining operations on Trail Ridge for future permit applications and amendments,' the bill said.
The second bill, HB 562, would place a five-year moratorium, or hold, on mining along the Okefenokee's Trail Ridge. GRN said that this hold would provide state regulators and independent scientists time to evaluate how mining at the Twin Pines site could impact groundwater levels under and near the swamp.
The five-year timeline would align with the Twin Pines demo mine duration, which includes four years of active mining plus one year groundwater recovery monitoring.
HB 562 would pause the acceptance of applications for new permits and the acceptance of requests to modify existing permits by the EPD to expand the area of land affected by surface mining operations on Trail Ridge.
These bills would allow mining on their nearly demonstration area with a state permit, GRN said, but they would not be able to mine across the rest of their site.
The bills would also potentially allow for portions of land, and possible mining rights, to be purchased. This is a similar move to what U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) did when they made the final decision to expand the acquisition boundary of the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge by approximately 22,000 acres.
The expansion does not immediately add the land to the Refuge, but it would allow the Service to work with willing landowners to acquire lands through fee title or conservation easements.
'Both of these bills provide the opportunity for all the legislators and leadership to respond to their constituents to save the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge from mining that would harm the swamp and swamp tourism upon which the economies of the local communities depend,' said Rena Ann Peck, executive director of Georgia Rivers.
In last year's session, another bill was introduced to place a three-year hold and passed the House but did not receive a floor vote by the Senate. Previous legislation has also been introduced like The Okefenokee Protection Act, but it did not make it through the legislative process.
The Okefenokee mining bills are sponsored by several Republicans in Georgia's coastal areas, including Thomasville's Darlene Taylor, Savannah's Ron Stephens and St. Mary's Rep. Steven Sainz. Gerald Greene (R) of Cuthbert, Debbie Buckner (D) of Junction City and Carolyn Hugley (D) of Columbus also sponsored the bills.
You can read HB 561 here:
Georgia-2025-HB561-IntroducedDownload
You can read HB 562 here:
Georgia-2025-HB562-IntroducedDownload
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