Sound Rivers, a Washington-based environmental organization and other groups, is decrying the decision by a state administrative court to uphold a state permit allowing a proposed Martin Marietta mine to discharge wastewater from the mine to Blounts Creek in southern Beaufort County.

Opponents of discharging the wastewater in to the creek have been fighting that possibility for several years in and out of the courts. Some opponents are not necessarily opposed to the mine, just the discharge of its wastewater into the creek. They also contend discharging up to 12 millions gallons of wastewater a day into the creek could harm fish that use the creek as a spawning/nursery or live there throughout the year.

The hearing before Judge Phil Berger Jr., who won a close race for a seat on the North Carolina Court of Appeals last month, was conducted in June. Berger said then it could take him several months to reach a decision. A copy of Berger’s decision was not immediately available on the Office of Administrative Hearings’ website Wednesday afternoon.

“Clearly, we are disappointed. … We plan to appeal to Beaufort County Superior Court,” said Heather Deck, Pamlico-Tar Riverkeeper, Sound Rivers, in a brief interview Wednesday afternoon. Deck said the Sound Rivers board of directors, contacted about the court’s decision, unanimously agreed to pursue the appeal to protect the creek’s water quality. Sound Rivers and other groups fighting the proposed wastewater discharge into the creek believe other alternatives for dealing with the wastewater exist.

“The decision completely ignores the interests of the people who live along the creek, fish its waters, and depend on its unique fisheries,” Deck said in a news release. “The N.C. Division of Water Resources could require the company to pursue other available alternatives that would protect the creek, not harm the local citizens, and comply with state and federal laws.”

A Martin Marietta spokesperson said, “We are pleased with the court’s decision and it confirms our belief that the proposed discharge of clean water will cause no harm to the environment or the beauty of the Blounts Creek system.”

The Southern Environmental Law Center, on behalf of Sound Rivers and the North Carolina Coastal Federation, fought the N.C. Division of Water Resources’ permit.

Berger determined that local marina owners’ businesses are a hobby and that people who boat and fish on the creek could not challenge the state’s issuance of the permit.

“This state permit violates the core requirement of the Clean Water Act: to protect our waters as they exist naturally,” said Geoff Gisler, senior attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center, in the release. “We are disappointed that today’s (Wednesday) decision ignores well-established law that protects places like Blounts Creek and gives citizens the right to defend those special places in court. The people who love Blounts Creek deserve the protection that the law provides and that the State failed to uphold — we will now turn to the superior court to provide that protection.”

Berger’s decision states that the petitioners (Sound Rivers and others) failed to meet their burden of proof by a preponderance of the evidence in several of their claims, including their claims the creek’s pH level and biological integrity would be adversely affected.

Berger also wrote: “There is insufficient evidence to conclude that the permitted discharge will substantially prejudice the hobbies and activities of Petitioners’ selected members. To the extent any evidence does exist, the purported harm is conjectural and hypothetical.”

The case has bounced around North Carolina courts since September 2013, when Sound Rivers and NCCF, with assistance from SELC, filed a petition challenging a state permit issued to Martin Marietta, allowing a discharge of up to 12 million gallons of fresh water per day into the headwaters of Blounts Creek. The environmental groups argued the influx of water used in the limestone-mining process would change the pH of the brackish creek, potentially decimating aquatic life in the state-designated nursery for saltwater species. N.C. Department of Justice and Martin Marietta attorneys have argued the creek’s ecosystem may change the pH, but it would promote the proliferation of other species.

News Editor Vail Stewart Rumley contributed to this article.