A motion to dismiss the case against the state and Martin Marietta Materials Inc. was denied by a Superior Court judge Monday.

The case dates back to September 2013, when environmental advocacy organization Sound Rivers and the North Carolina Coastal Federation, represented by counsel from the Southern Environmental Law Center challenged a state-issued permit that would allow the mining company to potentially discharge up to 12 million gallons of water per day into the headwaters of brackish Blounts Creek, which feeds into the Pamlico River. The case has since bounced around the court system, primarily in an effort to determine whether the organizations, and the local business owners and Blounts Creek residents they represent, have any standing to challenge the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality on the permit.

The latest hearing, held in Carteret County, was in response to attorneys for Martin Marietta asking that the case be dismissed on a technicality. According to Sound Rivers Deputy Director Heather Jacobs Deck, the motion to dismiss originated with the appeal filed by SELC after Office of Administrative Hearings Judge Phil Berger Jr. ruled for a second time that Sound Rivers and NCCF had no legal standing. Attorneys for SELC are required by law to notify within 10 days all parties involved in the case.

“Our attorneys did that. They sent out notice to DEQ, to Brooks and Pierce (attorneys) for Martin Marietta, and to the registered agent for Martin Marietta,” Deck said.

However, the address for the company’s registered agent had been changed and no forwarding address was provided, Deck said. SELC attorneys then tracked down the new address, but an ice storm prevented the notice from being delivered or picked up, which ultimately exceeded the 10-day window for notification, she said.

“This was a motion to dismiss that, in my mind, was pretty ridiculous,” Deck said Tuesday. “Basically, what happened, during this whole time, there was communication back and forth between the lawyers about setting dates. They knew what was going on.”

Parsons granted a retroactive extension of time for the service of the notice.

“If they had won that yesterday, then the case would have been over,” Deck said.

Parsons, who ruled in favor of Sound Rivers and NCCF in a Beaufort County Superior Court hearing in the fall of 2015, was scheduled to hear the case again in Superior Court in Carteret County in May. Parsons ordered in 2015 that he would retain jurisdiction if the case returned to Superior Court, but he recused himself from the case during Monday’s hearing, saying it was an important case, and he would ensure the judge assigned to it would have ample time to study it, according to Deck.

Deck said she was satisfied with the assurance.

“We’re pretty confident we’ll come out with a good ruling,” Deck said.