The company planning to build a limestone mining facility in southern Beaufort County has legally objected to a certain judge hearing the case again if it ends up back in Beaufort County Superior Court.

Attorneys for Martin Marietta Mining, Inc., have petitioned the North Carolina Court of Appeals, asking that a November order by Judge Douglas Parsons be lifted. Parsons ordered that he retain jurisdiction of the court case pitting Martin Marietta and the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality against environmental advocates Sound Rivers and North Carolina Coastal Federation, should that case land back in Superior Court.

“The Court having invested lots of the Court’s time in this matter, in the interest of judicial economy, should there be any further review after the remanded hearings are complete, remanded proceedings complete, the Court retains jurisdiction of this matter,” Parsons said at the conclusion of the September proceeding.

His words came after he found in favor of environmental advocates — that they had legal standing to question a permit issued to Martin Marietta by DEQ that could potentially harm Blounts Creek, a tributary of the Pamlico River. Parsons’ decision reversed that of Administrative Court Judge Phil Berger Jr. earlier in the year. In September, Parsons ordered the case back to the Office of Administrative Hearings to be heard again, this time with more evidence and testimony as to whether the DEQ permit allowing the discharge of up to 10 million gallons of fresh water per day into a brackish creek will damage the creek and its wildlife.

However, attorneys for Martin Marietta wrote in their petition last week that state statute prevents a Superior Court judge from retaining jurisdiction in any case. State law says that an appeal must be heard in the Superior Court of the county in which the aggrieved party resides: thus Sound Rivers’ appeal to Berger’s ruling was heard in Beaufort County. Should Martin Marietta be on the losing end of the next OAH decision, Parsons’ order to keep the case would prevent the Wake County-based mining company from appealing in the correct venue, causing confusion, Martin Marietta attorneys contend.

Attorney for “Citizen Groups” Sound Rivers and NCCF Geoff Gisler, with the Southern Environmental Law Center, responded to Martin Marietta’s petition later in the week, asking the court to deny the petition, simply because it isn’t based on anything that has occurred, only what might occur sometime in the future.

“The Company’s claims of speculative, future injuries are not sufficient to demonstrate that MMM has been prejudiced, and therefore fail to demonstrate that its petition has merit,” Gisler wrote.