A Few Minutes of Your Time

Suwannee RiverKeeper John Quarterman has sent  the information below, as a followup to our recent posts on Twin Pines Minerals, incompetent and rule-breaking company which wants to tear up the land near the headwaters of the Suwannee River in order to make money.

If you haven’t already, please send a short email to the Army Corps of Engineers asking them to deny the permit or at least demand an environmental impact study from the mining company.  You could also point out what  Mr. Quarterman says, that Twin Pines has still not demonstrated what the extent of impacts of the project will be to surrounding natural resources, as they are required to do.

This will take just a few minutes of your time, and it may help save our river here in Fl0rida.

Comments by OSFR historian Jim Tatum.
jim.tatum@oursantaferiver.org
– A river is like a life: once taken,
it cannot be brought back © Jim Tatum

“The initial project location is the farthest that mining activity would be from the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) boundary and the Okefenokee Swamp. Any additional mining that occurs within the 12,000-acre permit area would be closer to the refuge. The northwest boundary of the permit area is within a half mile from the refuge boundary and 400 feet from the edge of the Okefenokee Swamp,” wrote the Fish and Wildlife Service to Senator David Purdue.

You can still comment to the Army Corps demanding an Environmental Impact Statement.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) wrote that in response to an inquiry by Senator David Perdue of Georgia. Sen. Perdue also asked if FWS actually had jurisdiction over the proposed mining area, and FWS replied saying that it did have several kinds of oversight.

But FWS spelled out the bottom line: “It is the responsibility of the permit applicant to demonstrate what the extent of impacts of the project will be to surrounding natural resources.”

And the applicant still has not done that, not even in its second application.

No longer discussing the northern reaches of its landholdings much doesn’t mean the mining company won’t move on up there over years if they get a toehold.

Please comment to the Corps

You can still send a comment by May 28, 2020, to USACE:

To: CESAS-SpecialProjects@usace.army.mil

Re: Applicant: Twin Pines Minerals, LLC, Application Number: SAS-2018-00554

Be sure to ask for an Environmental Impact Statement.

Or…

Any additional mining would be closer to the refuge. –FWS to Sen. Perdue 2019-11-21

Any additional mining would be closer to the refuge. –FWS to Sen. Perdue 2019-11-21 https://t.co/kGjyLelBdU pic.twitter.com/LCKNli4wem

— WWALS, Suwannee Riverkeeper (@wwalswatershed) May 21, 2020