DHEC Response to Myrtle Beach Sun News Editorial
Sept. 9, 2008
After reading another editorial by the Sun News about the “culture” of the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control, I must respond to what is an unwarranted and a shamefully unnecessary attack on the men and women of this agency.
The Sun News editorial claimed that DHEC did “keep the public in the dark about AVX's illegal pollution” of the groundwater. That statement is wrong. The accusation also conveniently omits the fact that we notified local officials about the contamination in writing.
We may differ as to whether DHEC should have, at the time, expanded its initial notification to include the general public. Had there been an immediate threat to the public’s health, we would have made sure everyone knew about it immediately. There was not then and not now that level of threat. Disagree with that approach if you must. We can all look back on events in the past and recognize many ways things could have been done differently. However, accusing this agency of hiding information simply is not true. It was shared, in writing with local officials and was not secreted away into some dark file. In fact, the file on this issue is and has always been publicly available. My question is what does DHEC have to gain from being secretive on this issue?
The public should be aware of what has happened at and near the AVX facility; on that we can all agree. We can all agree the public should be informed on what is being done to address the contamination. What bothered me was the fear engendered within local residents from The Sun News reporting of these events. So much so that I was told by our staff that one couple who attended one of the public meetings at the city’s Fire Station #3 were afraid to come to the meeting because they were scared that the fire station was not safe since it was close to the facility. I know the newspaper’s reporting of the events was not designed to scare people but that was, at least in this case, the tangible result.
As to AVX’s decision to withdraw its air permit request, there is no great conspiracy of other information that this agency is hiding. AVX applied for the permit, the information was put out on public notice, we began the public discussion process, and then AVX decided to withdraw the application. That’s the whole story – no hidden deals, no back-door processes. It is what it is.
The editorial made the outrageous statement that DHEC is “on record saying it feels no special obligation to keep the public appraised of its interactions with AVX.” Nothing could be further from the truth. I suspect that is the Sun News’ interpretation of comments we have made that AVX is treated no differently than any other municipality, county or private industry that holds an environmental permit from this agency. The process we have been using for years have been appropriate and a readily available process for the public to obtain information. While not spoon fed, the information was and is openly available in printed documents and on our Web site. Our response was that if anyone wanted to research that information, it was and is readily available for them to do so. In fact, much of the reporting on the AVX issue and the permit application came directly from our files.
However, we understand that the technical and sometimes complicated information in permits and regulations should be more accessible and understandable. In fact, last year I instructed our staff to work toward making information more completely and easily accessible utilizing the Web site at www.scdhec.gov. As a result, we have been working for months on new systems that will enable residents throughout the state to find out what permitted sites are in their community and the accompanying issues that come with those sites. We hope to deploy this fall or winter our environmental health tracking system that will, among other things, provide information on a myriad of topics and issues. Clicking on a map will take you to the site-specific information so that anyone can see what’s going on in their local community. Additionally, we hope to generate direct communications to interested parties via the Web utilizing technologies such as RSS feeds, where individuals simply “subscribe” to the feed and automatically receive updates via the Web.
Change in well established and previously accepted methods of conducting business does not come overnight. That is particularly true when you deal with the number of complex issues that our agency must face every day. We do listen to our citizens and we are improving the way we do business. It’s all right with us if The Sun News wants to take credit for that, too.
It’s easy to take pride in castigating others for their shortcomings. It is much more difficult to see your own shortcomings and then make decisive improvements that will better the state as a whole. We, like everyone, have shortcomings and are working on improvements. The tone and attitude clearly illustrated by The Sun News editorial stance is unfortunate and needlessly denigrates the hard work done by the people of DHEC to protect the public’s health in South Carolina.