The same week a hearing date was set to delve more deeply into a mining company’s plans to discharge water into Blounts Creek, several county commissioners met with company officials to discuss the county’s request to explore alternative discharge methods.

The May 31 hearing represents the latest court appearance in a two-year effort to determine whether a discharge permit issued to Martin Marietta Materials Inc. by the state Division of Water Resources falls within the law. The permit, issued in 2013, would allow the limestone mining company to discharge up to 12 million gallons of fresh water used in the mining process into the brackish headwaters of Blounts Creek, potentially changing the pH of the water and the health of existing ecosystems, according to the parties questioning the permit.

Represented by the Southern Environmental Law Center, Sound Rivers, formerly Pamlico-Tar River Foundation, along with the North Carolina Coastal Federation, filed a petition questioning the DWR permit in fall of 2013. Since, an administrative court judge ruled the environmental advocacy organizations had no standing to question the permit — a ruling that was overturned in September of 2015 by Superior Court Judge Douglas Parsons. It was on Parsons’ order that the issue will get a closer look with a full evidentiary hearing in May at the Office of Administrative Hearings in Raleigh.

“As far as I understand, this will actually be more like a trial, when you think of a court trial like you see on TV — where you have both sides, witnesses, testimony and both attorneys presenting their sides,” said Pamlico-Tar riverkeeper Heather Jacobs Deck. “The difference is it will get much more down into details about what our argument is and what their argument is.”

Until September 2015, the county had not taken a stance on the issue, but days before the Superior Court hearing that would send the case back to OAH, the Beaufort County Board of Commissioners passed a resolution urging exploration of alternative ways to discharge that much fresh water, including into Little Swift Creek, a freshwater tributary of the Neuse River. In February, County Manager Brian Alligood sent the resolution and accompanying letter suggesting the same to Martin Marietta. The response was an invitation to meet with the company’s representatives.

On Friday, Alligood, Beaufort County Commissioners Robert Belcher, Gary Brinn and Ron Buzzeo met with David Crosby, Martin Marietta’s vice president and general manager, and Brian North, a Martin Marietta engineer and division environmental manager.

Buzzeo said the Martin Marietta officials answered commissioners’ questions about the permit, which included details about studies done prior to the permit’s issue and how the company fulfilled state requirements with those studies.

“There were four or five alternate designs that they looked at and they were all investigated,” Alligood said, adding that discharging water into Little Swift Creek had not been one of those options. “That was not something the state asked them to do.”

Crosby and North also explained the protections in place to monitor and restore well water, should well owners near the sight be affected by the increased amount of water pumped out of the Castle Hayne aquifer for mining purposes, Alligood said.

Buzzeo referred to the meeting as a good discussion, but not a productive one.

“My concern is the impact it’s going to have on the residents of the county and the resources of the county. … Those are my concerns and they weren’t satisfied,” Buzzeo said. “They feel what they’ve put in place is sufficient.”

Buzzeo said commissioners also were told that the 649-acre limestone pit mine would not be fully operational for five years.

In the meantime, Sound Rivers, NCCF and their representation will be preparing for the evidentiary hearing that will include expert witnesses and is likely to last several days, Deck said.

“I think there was some hope by the community members and us that there would be room for another alternative, but, from the meeting, it doesn’t seem like there was room for that,” Deck said. “So we move forward. The message is that we’re not going away.”