Associated Press
COLUMBIA --- The agency responsible for keeping watch over South Carolina's environment and health has fallen short of performing its duties, according to a newspaper investigation.
In a story published Sunday, The State newspaper reported that the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control often sides with companies it regulates.
The report said the agency often shares crucial information slowly or not at all and sometimes doesn't alert the public to dangers.
"DHEC doesn't need to promote business -- we have other state agencies that do that," said Rep. Joe Neal, D-Richland, who said he was shocked to learn that DHEC did not protect a Richland County community from a private utility's lead-laced drinking water for 20 years.
The report focuses on the agency's top management, whose policy decisions have been challenged repeatedly.
DHEC Commissioner Earl Hunter said the agency does its best to protect residents.
"I'm thoroughly convinced our staff is committed to try to do the best they possibly can," Mr. Hunter said. "Sometimes there are limitations ... to what we can do; sometimes the laws or regulations restrict us."
In 1985, DHEC found dangerous amounts of lead in the drinking water of Richland County's Franklin Park neighborhood. But it didn't get the lead removed until 2005, as The State newspaper was reporting that residents had lead in their blood.
Not until earlier this year did DHEC post signs at rivers to warn residents of the dangers of eating mercury-laced fish. DHEC knew the health threat had been expanding and had put notices out to the media, but signs went up only after The Post and Courier of Charleston reported on mercury in residents' blood.
Mr. Hunter insists health and environmental protection are the agency's top goals, but one of its own lawyers argued against that.
"Protection of the environment cannot come at the expense of agricultural business," DHEC lawyer Stephen Hightower said during a court hearing on a Dillon County hog farm. He argued against neighbors who were challenging DHEC's approval of the farm.
Mr. Hightower told Judge Paige Gossett that business profits should be given high consideration in environmental cases. DHEC has a duty to "protect a valuable industry that the Legislature has determined is important." Mr. Hightower lost.
In August, Judge Gossett ruled DHEC wrongly granted a permit to the 3,500-hog farm and its 32 tons of daily swine waste. She noted that DHEC hadn't produced an expert witness to support its pro-business arguments.
Columbia lawyer Bob Guild, who won the case, wasn't surprised DHEC argued business interests should trump a clean environment.
"That's been their behavior," said Mr. Guild. "It's disturbing that our state environmental agency trims its sails in favor of polluters."
