Recent news coverage of the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control brings into sharp relief concerns we have had for years and underscores the need for bold and fundamental reforms.

This exceptionally important agency should be the shield for public health and the environment that sustain South Carolina’s quality of life and its economic prosperity. Clean air, clean water and healthy neighborhoods are absolutely essential ingredients for our future.

It seems that agency leaders have been compromised by undue influence from business interests and legislators.

Hurried and ill-informed permit decisions on such critical projects as the Santee Cooper coal plant, the new Charleston port terminal, a golf course along the banks of the Saluda River, and factory hog farms in the Pee Dee are just a few manifestations of the agency abandoning its mission.

DHEC has withheld important information from communities threatened by toxic contaminants and even resisted testing for toxins’ presence. In Florence County, DHEC is tasked with the permitting of Santee Cooper’s proposed coal-fired power plant that would discharge 93 pounds of mercury into the environment, not to mention other hazardous air pollutants.

DHEC’s testing of fish in the Pee Dee has shown serious mercury contamination, and a Charleston newspaper investigation revealed high mercury levels in people who eat area fish. Yet DHEC’s promise to begin human testing this fall has apparently been abandoned. How can DHEC make decisions on air and water permits for the proposed plant without understanding the levels of mercury in people living in the Pee Dee area? More worrisome still, although federal courts have ruled that coal plants must have the maximum achievable control technology to reduce mercury and other toxic emissions, DHEC seems poised to let Santee Cooper pollute more than others do.

Under DHEC’s watch, South Carolina has become a dumping ground for virtually every species of waste. Municipal garbage flows in from New York; hazardous waste buried on the shore of Lake Marion threatens municipal drinking water supplies, and radioactive waste contaminates groundwater and the Savannah River.

Along the coast, DHEC’s Office of Ocean & Coastal Resource Management has consistently allowed development to move closer to the ocean, often on beaches that were renourished at taxpayer expense.

In case after case, DHEC lawyers have sided with developers and polluters against citizens and public interest groups.

DHEC’s dismal performance demands a bold response. No single action will insure adequate protection of health and the environment because the problems are deep and structural. The following changes, however, are essential.

First, the agency is too large to be managed efficiently. It should be broken into two separate agencies, a department of health and a department of environmental protection, each with uncompromised missions to protect the natural and human environment.

Second, DHEC should become a cabinet agency whose director is appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Senate. The DHEC board has already been stripped of so much authority that these days it backs DHEC staff actions reflexively. Cabinet status would help restore agency accountability, independence, and efficiency.

Third, the state should prohibit former employees from representing clients before the agency for at least two years after they leave.

Fourth, the law allowing legislative meddling in regulations should be repealed. Presently, unlike the majority of states in the country, rules must be presented to the legislature for their approval.

Manipulation by a few legislators has produced contradictory rules that fail to protect our resources or provide the clarity needed for responsible businesses to plan and thrive.

Fifth, the agency should be required to make records available quickly and cheaply. Further, permits approved by the staff that are then challenged, should be automatically reviewed by an appeals board before the agency renders its final opinion.

Sixth, the agency should collaborate far more closely with other institutions in the state with expertise in environment and public health.

Seventh, and by far the most important, DHEC needs a new spirit of leadership. The public has unfortunately lost trust in the current administration’s ability to stand up to pressure from rogue legislators and protect our health and the environment. What we don’t need now is agency personnel and board members attacking journalists who reveal serious problems. What we need is a new agency culture.

There is no reason South Carolina could not attract the highest quality candidates in the country for leadership positions, candidates with solid science backgrounds and extensive experience in health and environmental policy. That kind of leadership would rebuild public support for protecting South Carolina’s citizens and its environmental resources.

We recognize that DHEC has many dedicated and competent employees. We hope this new media exposure will serve as the foundation on which to build a new institution that puts that talent to its highest use, vigorously protecting South Carolina’s two most important assets, the environment and human health.

– Dana Beach, Coastal

Conservation League

– M. Gault “Bunny” Beeson Jr.,

Wildlife Action

– Norman Brunswig, Audubon

South Carolina

– Jimmy Chandler, South Carolina

Environmental Law Project

– Ben Gregg, South Carolina

Wildlife Federation

– Blan Holman, Southern

Environmental Law Center

– John Ramsburgh, Sierra Club

of South Carolina

– Ann Timberlake, Conservation

Voters of South Carolina

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