A Call to Account | Local legislators shine in initiating an audit of DHEC

Posted on February 12, 2008 
Filed Under News

Seven Horry County legislators did well last week to sic the state’s Legislative Audit Council on the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control. The good folks at the DHEC won’t agree, but an audit is in the agency’s own best interest.

The agency admits that its past handling of the toxic groundwater pollution in south-central Myrtle Beach leaves something to be desired. Its leadership professes to be on top of the problem now, with a comprehensive groundwater testing program in full swing and the likely polluter, AVX Corp., in line to pay cleanup costs. DHEC, they say, has taken accountability for ensuring that the toxic substance in question, trichloroethylene, gets cleaned up.

But as S.C. Rep. Alan Clemmons, R-Myrtle Beach, noted last week, the audit is necessary to reassure city residents who live near the AVX plant on 17th Avenue South that they can count on DHEC to make them emotionally and economically whole.

“If contamination flows onto your property,” Clemmons asked, “how accountable is DHEC in informing you of the impact?”

Just so. It’s DHEC’s turn in the legislative audit barrel because residents for years were unaware that the TCE tainting the shallow aquifer beneath south-central Myrtle Beach had migrated beyond the confines of the AVX plant. They learned only last November that the pollution underlay their properties. And they learned only last month that earlier this decade DHEC accepted the corporation’s word that the TCE, a volatile organic solvent with cancer-causing properties, has been contained within the plant’s boundaries. As we all know now, it wasn’t.

Beyond the needs of south-central Myrtle Beach residents lies the economic uncertainty that the flow of the toxic groundwater has inflicted on our resort community. DHEC testing shows that Withers Swash and the Atlantic Ocean lie in the TCE migration path. Public- and private-side leaders need reassurance that the DHEC’s cleanup – whenever it begins – can stall the toxic plume before it inflicts egregious economic harm on our tourism economy. The audit, if properly done, should provide such reassurance.

No matter how the audit turns out, DHEC can only benefit from it. If only minor adjustments – or no adjustments – are in order at the DHEC, Myrtle Beach residents can take on faith that the agency will remove this toxic threat to the community’s physical and economic health.

If the findings are unfavorable, the agency will have a roadmap for improving its toxic-cleanup effectiveness. And legislators will have political cover for any additional spending or restructuring that might be necessary to improve the DHEC’s responsiveness and accountability.

Congratulations – and thanks – to Clemmons and S.C. Sen. Luke Rankin, R-Myrtle Beach, for initiating the audit. Thanks, as well, to Sen. Ray Cleary, R-Murrells Inlet; Sen. Yancey McGill, D-Kingstree; Sen. Dick Elliott, D-North Myrtle Beach; Rep. Tracy Edge, R-North Myrtle Beach; and Rep. Thad Viers, R-Myrtle Beach, for signing the audit request letter to the Legislative Audit Council. This well may prove to be the most valuable service they provide their constituents this year.

The Sun News
Editorial
2/06/2008