The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Water Resources (DWR) has released a revised wastewater discharge permit for Martin Marietta Materials Inc.’s Vanceboro Quarry for public comment.
The permit was previously approved in February 2025, following a public hearing held Nov. 19, 2024, in Washington, North Carolina. The permit was rescinded based on the U.S. Supreme Court’s San Francisco v. EPA, 145 S. Ct 704 (2025) decision. The permit has since been revised.
No mining activity has occurred at the site since the original permit was issued in 2013. The permit is proposed to regulate 12 million gallons per day of mine dewatering and stormwater from two outfalls to unnamed tributaries of Blounts Creek, which is classified as a Class C, Swamp, Nutrient Sensitive Waterbody in the Tar-Pamlico River Basin.
The revised permit requires an assessment of biological integrity once every two years through sampling for benthos, or small aquatic organisms that live in water, with the first sampling event to occur between Feb. 1 through March 15, after the discharge begins.
The permit includes a requirement to monitor monthly for pH, total suspended solids (TSS) and turbidity – a measure of suspended material – in the discharge, or effluent, from the mine.
Comments will be accepted on the revised permit until Oct. 29. Public comments may be submitted by email to: publiccomments@deq.nc.gov. Please include “NC0089168 Vanceboro Quarry” in the email’s subject line.
In addition, comments may be submitted by mail to: Wastewater Permitting (NC0089168), 1617 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, N.C. 27699-1617.
Permit details and a technical fact sheet can be found online: DWR Vanceboro Quarry permit file.