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Too few upsides to warrant mining for titanium near wildlife refuge and many huge risks
Tommy Barton
This is a column by Tommy Barton, retired editorial page editor of the Savannah Morning News.
Native Americans called it “Okefenokee,” or “land of the trembling earth.” In this watery corner of Southeast Georgia, the land actually thick patches of peat that literally floated on top of water – trembled when you got out of your canoes and walked on it. Even the trees trembled.
I still remember my first visit to the Okefenokee Swamp, the largest blackwater swamp in North America, about 40 years ago. It was like paddling a canoe into a time warp to when dinosaurs walked a raw, unspoiled planet. Here, I got up close to real alligators, not the obnoxious pretend Gators who slank about the old Gator Bowl every fall in Jacksonville.
GPB s Grant Blankenship reports on the Golden Ray fire.
The Golden Ray, the massive container ship left stranded on its side in St. Simons Sound after running aground September 2019, was ablaze Friday afternoon, with flames stretching high into the air.
According to Lt. Pat Frain of the U.S. Coast Guard, the fire started when workers on the vessel used cutting torches to prepare a part of the hull for a much larger cut to come later.
Those torches started a small fire, which by Friday afternoon had become a massive blaze easily visible from the pier on St. Simons Island and billowing black smoke toward Jekyll Island.
Sen. Jon Ossoff toured the Okefenokee Swamp by boat and helicopter last week and was briefed by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials there on the swamp’s conservation status, biological and hydrological conditions, and ongoing efforts to assess the potential environmental impact of a mining company s plans to mine near the edge of the wetland wildlife refuge.
“The Okefenokee is a sacred natural resource,” Ossoff said in a prepared statement. “I am grateful to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for their diligent protection of this precious wildlife refuge, and last week’s briefings affirmed my conviction they must participate intensively in the ongoing effort to assess damage that could result from proposed mining activity around the edge of the swamp.”
At Georgia Power, we are committed to delivering clean, safe, reliable and affordable energy and to building a clean and sustainable energy future for the state of Georgia. We have invested in a diverse energy mix of nuclear, natural gas, hydro, solar, wind, coal and energy efficiency resources to help us continue delivering on that commitment.
Georgia Power has one of the largest voluntary renewable portfolios in the country, and we will continue to lead here by growing our solar energy and renewable generation by more than 72% by 2025. That will increase our total renewable capacity to 22% of our total generation.