News

The fight to save Blounts Creek is not over.

Mining company Martin Marietta Materials has applied to renew its wastewater permit for a 649-acre limestone mine, and the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality is accepting comments on the proposed renewal.

WRITE YOUR COMMENTS THROUGH OUR ACTION ALERT!

If enough comments about the mine and its potential impacts are submitted to DEQ, its Division of Water Resources must hold a public hearing, according to Pamlico-Tar Riverkeeper Katey Zimmerman (** update 9/25/24: with more than 400 letters submitted during the public comment period, NCDEQ has granted a public hearing which will be held in November, date TBA).

“This is essentially our last chance to get the terms of the permit altered to better protect the water quality and ecosystems of Blounts Creek — as well as protect landowner wells — before they begin discharging up to 12 million gallons of water per day into Blounts Creek,” Katey said. “A public hearing will only be granted if there is enough public interest, so we need lots of people to write comments.”

There’s 13 years of history between Sound Rivers and the proposed Blounts Creek mine.

In 2011, Martin Marietta applied for the initial NPDES (National Pollution Discharge Elimination System) permit, and what followed was heated, standing-room-only public hearings, the rise of the Save Blounts Creek grassroots movement and, when NCDEQ issued the permit, a Sound Rivers lawsuit that bounced around the court system for more than a decade.

The permit issued by NCDEQ allows Martin Marietta Materials’ limestone mine to discharge up to 12 million gallons of fresh water per day into the headwaters of the brackish tributary of the Pamlico River in Beaufort County. The North Carolina Supreme Court ruled last year that NCDEQ was correct to issue the permit.

At risk is an entire ecosystem, designated by the state as nursery for saltwater species and a critical habitat for fish and other aquatic life, Katey said.

“The approval of a NPDES Discharge permit is in violation of state law. The discharge, which constitutes large volumes of groundwater, would significantly raise the pH of the stream system, a change that is not allowable under North Carolina water-quality regulations,” she said. “Such a change in the water chemistry would result in a change in aquatic species — for example, fish and aquatic insects — that could survive in those waters. State law is clear that it does not allow a discharge of waste to change the species composition of a stream from its natural state.”

NCDEQ is accepting comments until the public hearing in November. Comments can be mailed to NCDEQ-DWR Water Quality Permitting Section, 1617 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC  27699-1617 or emailed to program consultant Derek Denard at derek.denard@deq.nc.gov.

You can also use Sound Rivers’ Action Alert: we’ve written the email, all you need to do is add your name and press send (you can add your own comments, too)!

WRITE YOUR EMAIL TO NCDEQ USING OUR ACTION ALERT.

Want to find out why it’s important to save Blounts Creek? Sound Rivers’ very first episode of its podcast “Sound Rivers: Riverkeeping Tales from the Neuse & Tar-Pamlico” is “The Story of Blounts Creek,” which explores exactly how mine discharge could destroy this pristine creek and how the battle to save it unfolded. Listen to it here.

(It’s also available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music — just search for “riverkeeping.”)

READ NCDEQ’S PUBLIC NOTICE.

READ THE DRAFT PERMIT.