A new poll shows overwhelming public opposition to an Alabama company’s plans to mine titanium near the Okefenokee Swamp.

The survey of 600 Georgia voters, conducted last week by Washington, D.C.-based Hart Research Associates, found widespread bipartisan opposition to issuing state permits to Twin Pines Minerals for the project.

More than nine of 10 poll respondents said it is important to protect the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge and its wildlife from pollution and other environmental dangers. By the same overwhelming margin, the voters surveyed said it’s more important to protect plants and wildlife that live in the swamp from harm, even if it might prevent economic development.

“This supports exactly what we’ve been hearing across our state for years, that Georgians do not want this mine threatening the Okefenokee,” said Bill Sapp, a senior attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center. “For years, Twin Pines has failed to prove their proposed mine would not harm the swamp. Clearly, Georgians oppose any threat to the swamp, including Twin Pines’ proposed mine.”

The Georgia Environmental Protection Division (EPD) released draft permits for the first phase of the proposed mine in February. Twin Pines executives have said the project would not harm the swamp.

But opponents cite research showing that mining titanium oxide along Trail Ridge on the Okefenokee’s eastern rim would threaten the swamp’s water levels, increase wildfire risks, harm wildlife, and release toxic contaminants into nearby surface and groundwater.

Legislation aimed at stopping the mine has been introduced in the General Assembly but has failed to win passage. The latest effort, which the state House of Representative passed on the next-to-last day of this year’s legislative session, called for a three-year moratorium on the type of mining being planned near the swamp. But the bill died when it failed to get a vote in the Senate.

At least 19 local governments across Georgia have passed resolutions calling for protecting the Okefenokee.

“Georgians of all political stripes know this proposal to mine for titanium dioxide, a common pigment, is flat-out wrong for the Okefenokee,” said Chris Watson, Southeast campaign director for the National Parks Conservation Association. “This polling makes that clear.”

Capitol Beat is a nonprofit news service operated by the Georgia Press Educational Foundation that provides coverage of state government to newspapers throughout Georgia. For more information visit capitol-beat.org.