Sunday, Dec. 07, 2008

Beach: Bold, fundamental reforms needed at DHEC

By DANA BEACH - Guest Columnist

The State’s extraordinary series on the Department of Health and Environmental Control brings into sharp relief concerns that many of us in the conservation community 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.

Yet as the series thoroughly explained, 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.

As the series revealed, DHEC has withheld important information from communities threatened by toxic contaminants. It resisted for years posting signs informing fishermen of dangerous levels of mercury in our state’s rivers and today expresses no intent to reduce these levels.

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 and 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 ensure 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 an uncompromised mission 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 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. Unlike the majority of states, rules must be presented to the Legislature for 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.

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

Mr. Beach is founder and executive director of the S.C. Coastal Conservation League.

• Environmental consensus

This column represents the views of not only the Coastal Conservation League but also the Audubon South Carolina, Conservation Voters of South Carolina, S.C. Environmental Law Project, Southern Environmental Law Center, S.C. Wildlife Federation, Sierra Club of South Carolina, and Wildlife Action, whose leaders contributed to its writing.

Return to Home Page