Interior Proposes Okefenokee Expansion to Stop Contested Mine (1)

The US Fish and Wildlife Service plans to expand Georgia’s Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge to include the site of a proposed titanium dioxide mine as a way to block development at the heart of a federal waters jurisdiction dispute.

The service announced a plan Friday to expand Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge by 22,000 acres to surround and include the site of Twin Pines Minerals LLC’s mine, which Georgia regulators are in the process of permitting.

The expansion, which does not force the sale of any private land within the proposed boundary, is needed to protect the “hydrological integrity” of the ...