The Okefenokee Swamp is a vast expanse of mirrored waters, cypress trees draped in Spanish moss and rare birdlife that stretches over Georgia’s border into Florida. But a plan to mine titanium less than three miles from the southeast corner of the wildlife refuge could trigger severe droughts and wildfires, as well as threaten the endangered species that make the wetlands their home, say scientists, elected officials, environmental groups and neighbors who oppose the project.
Federal environmental officials have also weighed in, arguing the project proposed by Alabama-based Twin Pines Minerals LLC could deplete water levels essential for maintaining the fragile ecosystem of one of the largest wetlands east of the Mississippi.
The Okefenokee dispute, which has sparked tens of thousands of comments from opponents of the mine, could lead to a legal battle over water rights between federal and state environmental officials, say environmental lawyers and academics interviewed by Capital & Main.
In April, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) sent the Georgia Environmental Protection Division (EPD) a 54-page letter outlining its objections to the project. The letter is among more than 77,000 comments sent to the state agency. Some experts view Fish and Wildlife’s assertion in the letter that the mining project will infringe upon federal water rights as a sign that the agency will sue Georgia if the project is approved.
If the state greenlights the mining project near the federally owned wildlife refuge, “It’s just going to result in a lawsuit,” said Ryan Rowberry, an environmental law professor at Georgia State University. Rowberry is the author of a paper on federal reserved water rights, a 116-year-old legal doctrine that grants the federal government water rights to support the primary purpose of the lands it owns. The Fish and Wildlife Service invoked the concept in its letter to Georgia officials.
Georgia has already issued draft permits for the mine, and the state agency is expected to issue its final decision on the project in the coming weeks or months.
Okefenokee was acquired by the federal government in 1936 and established as a wildlife refuge the following year.
Battles between state and federal regulators over water rights are typically confined to the drought-prone western United States, but water scarcity is becoming a growing concern nationwide due to climate change and increased development, environmental lawyers and scientists told Capital & Main. That could lead to more conflicts between federal and local officials over water rights east of the Mississippi, they said. As “drought, climate change and increased development all work together” to heighten the demand on finite water resources, it may signal what’s to come for federal lands in this part of the country, said Rowberry.
Meetings between federal and state agencies are typically the “first step” to resolving conflicts over water rights out of court in the West, said Jason Totoiu, senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. The Fish and Wildlife Service wrote the Georgia Environmental Protection Division in late January seeking a first such meeting — but seven months later, the two agencies disagree on whether one has even taken place.
A Georgia spokesperson wrote in an email to Capital & Main that there was a meeting on July 18, and that the federal agency’s “staff let us know that a technical meeting between EPD and USFWS on the Twin Pines project […] is no longer needed.” Asked about this assertion, a spokesperson for the federal agency wrote, “[T]he Service and GA-EPD did not schedule a meeting on July 18.”
When asked about the possibility of a lawsuit against the state of Georgia, the Fish and Wildlife spokesperson wrote that the agency is “currently evaluating all available options.” The Georgia agency declined to comment on the issue.
National parks and wildlife refuges must have sufficient water to fulfill their intended purposes, according to the legal doctrine cited in Fish and Wildlife’s letter to Georgia officials. “When the federal government takes land anywhere, it becomes subject to federal water rights,” said Rowberry, who submitted a comment to the the Georgia Environmental Protection Division opposing the project. Okefenokee was acquired by the federal government in 1936 and established as a refuge the following year for preservation as a “breeding ground for migratory birds and other wildlife,” according to the wildlife refuge’s website.
Lewis Jones, an environmental attorney representing Twin Pines, disagreed with Rowberry’s assessment that the federal government could sue if Georgia grants the permit. Federal reserved water rights are “uniquely western” in his view. They apply only to lands set aside by the federal government during westward expansion, and not to “anywhere that the federal government has purchased” land. The Fish and Wildlife Service claim on Okefenokee is “a novel one that’s never been tested,” Jones added.
Meanwhile, experts say they have never seen so much opposition to an application submitted to the Environmental Protection Division. Opponents who have submitted comments include Sen. Jon Ossoff and former EPD scientists, as well as neighbors of the wildlife refuge and dozens of independent scientists and environmental attorneys.
Extreme weather patterns and high temperatures caused by climate change could exacerbate the risk the mining project poses to Okefenokee.
Titanium is used in everything from sunscreen to weapons. Mining near Okefenokee would require removing 1.1 million gallons of water per day from mining pits, as sand is processed to isolate the mineral. That’s enough water to accommodate the daily use of more than 14,000 Georgia residents. The mining process could lower the water table — the underground boundary between water-saturated soil and dry ground — several miles away from the project. Such a change could dry out peat on the surface of the Okefenokee swamp and make it vulnerable to wildfires, according to hydrologist Rhett Jackson.
Wildfires could threaten animals and plants in the rare, undisturbed ecosystem, including the red-cockaded woodpecker, one of the first species listed under the 1973 Endangered Species Act, according to the Fish and Wildlife Service. Also in potential jeopardy: the $91 million that Okefenokee’s visitors spend in the Georgia counties surrounding the wildlife refuge, Fish and Wildlife asserts in its letter.
Extreme weather patterns and high temperatures caused by climate change could exacerbate the risk the mining project poses to Okefenokee, according to scientists who spoke to Capital & Main. In addition, if large amounts of the refuge’s peat are lost to wildfire, then climate change itself may also be accelerated, as peat when undisturbed acts to capture and store carbon. When peat dries and burns, carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere, furthering a harmful cycle, according to Megan Hinkle Huynh, senior attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center.
Huynh’s signature is at the bottom of a 96-page letter opposing the Twin Pines Minerals permit that is also backed by “53 organizations, collectively representing more than fifteen million members and supporters.”
The center’s letter refers to the work of hydrologist Jackson, who estimates that mining for titanium would triple the “duration and severity of drought in the southeastern portion of the swamp.”
Jones, the attorney for Twin Pines Minerals, disagrees with Jackson and the thousands of others who oppose the mine. “Our project will have no effect on the swamp,” he told Capital & Main. “Our scientists have studied it, and our use of water at the site will not reduce groundwater to any measurable degree.”
After three decades of research in Georgia, Jackson is skeptical that state environmental officials will deny Twin Pines Minerals’ proposal. “I can’t recall EPD denying a surface mining permit,” he said. “EPD doesn’t have the culture of denying a permit — only setting permit conditions.”
The scientist said that only a small minority of the tens of thousands of comments the state is evaluating before reaching its decision are technical, written by scientists like him. The state doesn’t need to prove the scientists are wrong, he said: “They can just say, ‘We disagree.’”
Jackson also said that Georgia’s decision on the mining permit is not just scientific in nature. “It’s a question of values,” he said. “Okefenokee is a phenomenal place. I’ve been to 30 countries and never seen a place more beautiful.”
