Close to 300 people attended a virtual hearing Tuesday evening sponsored by the Georgia Environmental Protection Division to collect comment on the draft permits issued for Alabama-based Twin Pines Minerals’ strip mine near the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge.
About 100 speakers, each allotted two minutes, uniformly spoke against the mining plans and urged EPD to deny the permits. Most also spoke of their love of the Okefenokee, the largest wildlife refuge in the Eastern U.S. and one of the largest intact freshwater ecosystems in the world. No one spoke in support of mining.
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