Saga of proposed mine at Okefenokee Swamp’s edge still mired in legal challenges, regulatory reviews

Each year, hundreds of thousands of people visit the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge in southeast Georgia to kayak, hike, fish, and participate in other recreational activities. A federal lawsuit filed on Nov. 15 by environmental groups claims that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is violating the Clean Water Act by not protecting wetlands that are at risk of mining. Photo contributed by Joy Campbell

Conservationists are waging another legal challenge against a company’s strip-mining plans near the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge in southeast Georgia. 

The Southern Environmental Law Center is suing the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for removing federal wetlands protections on 600 acres where Twin Pines Minerals is awaiting permission from Georgia’s Environmental Protection Division to begin mining heavy metals at the doorstep of the largest blackwater swamp in the nation.

The law center filed the suit on Nov. 15 in the U.S. District of Columbia District Court on behalf of the National Wildlife Refuge Association, National Parks Conservation Association, Defenders of Wildlife and the Center for Biological Diversity. The lawsuit challenges the Corps’ decision in August to return control of the project to the state Environmental Protection Division after the federal agency gave up on its plans to get more input about the mine’s potential harm to Muscogee Creek Nation burial grounds.