New state agency unveils $20,000 logo, promises efficiency and pollution prevention

The director of South Carolina’s new environmental department pledged Monday to focus on protecting the state’s water, air and landscape from pollution, while improving service, as the agency establishes itself as a replacement for the state’s often-criticized health and environmental department.

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At a news conference under a broiling July sun, Department of Environmental Services chief Myra Reece said it’s a new day in the state’s effort to safeguard the natural world. Reece issued her comments while unveiling a new logo for the state agency. The logo has been criticized by some observers for costing taxpayers $20,000, but praised by others as important in branding the new department.

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Reece said the “timing cannot be more perfect’’ in establishing the Department of Environmental Services, a department whose sole focus is on environmental issues. The 51-year-old state Department of Health and Environmental Control was one of the few agencies in the country that combined health and environment, which critics said diluted its ability to function well. The DES replaces DHEC’s environmental division.

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“Environmental issues are becoming more complex and challenging for not only South Carolina, but all states across the country,’’ Reece said. “Being established as a separate environmental agency allows us to focus 100% of our attention and expertise on finding solutions that work for South Carolina. ‘’

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Reece said the new DES plans to “modernize the business’’ of environmental protection with new technology. She pledged to make the agency more transparent. DHEC had been criticized at times for secrecy.

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In an interview with reporters, Reece said she hopes the new agency will get more money from the Legislature because it will not be sharing budget requests with a health division, as has been the case with DHEC. She said the department needs to hire and retain staff members, about half of whom have less than five years experience. As many as 40 percent of other workforce members are nearing retirement.

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Despite her optimism, the agency faces challenges. Like DHEC’s environmental division, the new DES has different constituencies that often clash over how to protect the rivers, beaches, air and countryside in a state dominated by business interests and conservative lawmakers.

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Most of the new agency’s 1,200-member staff worked at DHEC in its environmental division. Some critics have questioned whether the state’s effort to protect the environment will change for the better since the same staff is essentially in charge of the new department. DHEC had been criticized for failing through the years to act aggressively to protect the environment in the face of pressure from anti-regulatory lawmakers.

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Reece said she will work collaboratively with different groups as the state wrestles with complex environmental issues.

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Among the future challenges are how to deal with pollution from forever chemicals, the toxic compounds that are showing up in waterways across the country. DHEC had declined to regulate forever chemicals, known as PFAS, found in drinking water, rivers and sludge applied on farms as fertilizer. Instead, the agency waited on new federal drinking water standards that were finalized earlier this year. The DES is tasked with carrying out — and enforcing — the new drinking water standards. South Carolina still does not have limits on PFAS in sewer sludge.

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The DES also will face pressure from coastal development interests that have challenged state efforts to protect public beaches from development that worsens erosion in a time of more intense storms and rising sea levels. The agency’s coastal division, which transfers over from DHEC, has been involved in multiple legal disputes with affluent coastal property owners who have put up seawalls and sand bags to protect their homes from the rising sea. But beach erosion is more pronounced when those methods of protection are hit by waves.

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Susan Corbett, a longtime Sierra Club member and South Carolina state chair, said Reece should have put emphasis on how the DES would deal with climate change, the overarching issue that is linked to many environmental problems, such as increased flooding and erosion in South Carolina.

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“It’s very disappointing,’’ Corbett said. “Is she afraid just to mention it? Does she feel like mentioning global warming is going to discredit something they are working on?’’

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But the Rev. Leo Woodberry, an environmental justice activist from eastern South Carolina, said he was encouraged by a pledge Reece made Monday to work with community groups as it regulates the environment. The issue of environmental justice involves how to help poor communities that critics say are disproportionately affected by pollution.

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“This is a new opportunity for them to do some different things and also to amplify some things,’’ said Woodberry, who attended Monday’s news conference at DES’s invitation.

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In addition to those issues, the DES has a task at hand in dealing with recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings that could curtail environmental protections.

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The most notable decision occurred last week, when the high court took action that could limit the federal government’s use of regulations to protect the environment when environmental laws are ambiguous. Most state and federal environmental laws include a series of regulations accompanying them.

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Reece indicated that the Supreme Court’s decision puts emphasis on updating federal environmental laws, such as the Clean Air Act. Most cornerstone environmental laws were written in the early 1970s.

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More than anything, the DES will work with industries and others to prevent pollution, said Reece, a career DHEC employee who headed that agency’s environment division.

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“An ounce of prevention is much more beneficial than a pound of cure,’’ she said. “And we’re going to be working really hard with our businesses and other folks around the state to look at ways that we can keep our environment healthy and focus on pollution prevention.’’

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The Department of Environmental Services logo unveiled at Monday’s news conference is a multicolored drawing of South Carolina. It includes four bands of blue and green signifying the different regions of the state, from the mountains to the coast. The logo, attached to the podium where Reece spoke, included the phrase “Science, Service, Sustainability.’’

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DHEC paid the Chernoff Newman marketing and advertising firm $20,000 to design the logo, even though the department had in-house staff members who could have done the work. Reece told The State the logo is vital to getting the agency off to a good start, and it was necessary to hire an outside firm to help out.

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“It’s so important from a brand perspective; we’ve got to build our new identity,’’ she said. “We’re going to be out in the community. It’s going to be so important that these first 60 days there is brand recognition.’’

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The Department of Environmental Services will be composed of divisions that oversee rivers and drinking protection, air quality, hazardous waste and landfills, coastal management and emergency responses. All of those divisions were part of DHEC. The former water planning division at the Department of Natural Resources has been added to the Department of Environmental Services.

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State legislators voted to break up DHEC in 2023, with the effective date of 2024, in hopes of making both the agency’s health and environmental divisions more efficient, they said. As it stood, DHEC regulated everything from garbage dumps and water quality to public health responses, hospitals and tattoo parlors.

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Some business and agriculture groups supported the change, including the influential S.C. Farm Bureau. DHEC’s former health division is now the state Department of Public Health, headed by former DHEC director Edward Simmer.

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Monday’s news event was attended by more than 100 former DHEC employees, as well as current environmental services workers. Among the former DHEC staff in attendance were one-time directors Doug Bryant and Earl Hunter.

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This story was originally published July 1, 2024, 3:57 p.m.