February 10, 2012

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New DHEC chief comes from Governor’s Cabinet

January 26, 2012 By

The state’s health and environmental permitting agency is poised to get a pro-business Lowcountry lawyer as its new leader.

Catherine Templeton (File)

A year after being appointed by Governor Nikki Haley as director of the state Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation, Catherine Templeton has been selected as head of the Department of Health and Environmental Control. The DHEC board, largely appointed by Haley, gave the nod to Templeton Wednesday.

The 41-year-old Templeton is a Mount Pleasant attorney who has represented businesses in employee lawsuits. Governor Haley and the state Senate must approve Templeton’s appointment. She is expected to start February 1. She would be replacing outgoing DHEC Commissioner Earl Hunter who is retiring after 10 years at the post. In all, Hunter has spent more than 30 years with the agency.

Templeton made headlines last year when she was sued, along with Governor Haley, by a machinists’ union during the Boeing dispute for making anti-union statements. The suit was dismissed.

The DHEC board chose Templeton over fellow finalists DHEC health rgulator Pam Dukes and Spartanburg hospital executive Ingo Angermeier.

Filed Under: Business, Environment & Conservation, News, Politics & Government

Lawmakers cracking down on chronic sewage pollution

January 17, 2012 By

The General Assembly is back in session Tuesday and one piece of legislation that is likely to pass out this week is a “three-strike” law for towns and utilities that run municipal or rural sewer systems.

Under the bill, any wastewater utility that has three spills of 5,000 gallons within a 12-month period (per every 100 miles of pipe) would have to undergo a thorough audit by the state’s environmental agency. The audit would then order a plan to minimize any future spills.

Under current law, utilities only have to report spills; there is no penalty. “We wanted to stop chronic spills from occurring and entering our waterways and drinking water,” said state Rep. Mike Pitts (R-Laurens), who sponsored the bill.

The language was a compromise between conservation groups and the utilities. “The majority of wastewater treatment facilities are doing a good job and do not have repeated spills,” said Debbie Parker, program director of the Conservation Voters of South Carolina, “But there are a handful, unfortunately, who have.”

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Filed Under: Accidents & Disasters, Environment & Conservation, Featured, Legislature, News, Politics & Government

Hunley submarine now fully visible

January 12, 2012 By

The former Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley is now fully visible for the first time since it sank outside Charleston harbor in 1864.

Courtesy: Friends of the Hunley

On Thursday, experts carefully removed a 50-foot, 17,000-pound truss that has long been sitting on top of the Hunley. Although researchers say the truss was necessary for the Hunley’s safety, it has also completely obstructed a complete view of the submarine until now.

Officials at Clemson’s Warren Lasch Conservation Center said the move was done to improve the visitor experience. “Separating the truss from the Hunley represents the official beginning of the final conservation treatment of the Hunley,” Director Mike Drews said in a statement.

The Hunley made history in 1864 when it became the first submarine to successfully sink an enemy ship– the U.S.S. Housatonic– in the Charleston harbor. However, the submarine sank shortly afterwards itself, taking its eight-member crew down with it.

The wreck was discovered by Clive Cussler’s National Underwater and Marine Agency in 1995. It was raised five years later and delivered to the Lasch Center. The Hunley’s study and conservation is run by the Clemson University Restoration Institute, the South Carolina Hunley Commission, Naval Historical Center, and Friends of the Hunley.

The next step will be modifications on the Hunley’s 90,000-gallon conservation tank.  The tank – which currently holds chilled fresh water to stabilize the submarine as it awaits treatment – needs to be altered in order to accommodate the chemicals necessary to conserve the sub.

Scientists hope to have the submarine soaking in the chemical solution by the end of the year. The solution is designed to leach out salts that got into the ship’s iron hull while it sat on the ocean floor. Salt is toxic to iron.

Filed Under: Environment & Conservation, Human Interest, News

Legislators investigating DNR chief’s departure

December 19, 2011 By

Legislators are investigating whether the man who has led South Carolina’s Department of Natural Resources for the past eight years was improperly forced out.

DNR director John Frampton (Courtesy: SCDNR)

DNR director John Frampton said earlier this year that he planned to retire in March. However, the agency’s board of directors– which is appointed by the governor– asked him to move his retirement up to January so they could take the agency in a new direction.

But two board members who support Frampton accused the other five members of conspiring to oust the director. In an unusually confrontational Dec. 8 meeting (watch video here), John Evans and Norman Pulliam convinced other board members not to accept Frampton’s resignation letter, saying they had been left out of several phone conversations between the other board members and that such conversations could have violated the state’s open meetings laws.

During the meeting, Frampton said Chairwoman Caroline Rhodes had asked him to quit. That angered Evans and Pulliam, who questioned how she could do that without a formal vote by the board.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Environment & Conservation, Legislature, News, Politics & Government

DHEC: Sumter woman contracts deadly rabies from bat

December 16, 2011 By

A middle-aged Sumter County woman has contracted the rabies virus–the first case in South Carolina in more than 50 years, says Department of Health and Environmental Control spokesperson Jim Beasley.

“The woman from Sumter County woman who contracted rabies actually had been bitten by a bat. We believe that bat had gotten in her home several months ago and then the virus traveled slowly and infected the patient,” says Beasley.

Beasley says tragically, rabies almost always ends in death–as there is no cure. He says there are only about one to three cases of rabies in the country a year.

Like the current case, Beasley says rabies takes some time to fully develop.

“The rabies virus, it’s important to understand, it travels very slowly through the body until it reaches the brain in the central nervous system and it produces some serious initial symptoms such as headaches, difficulty swallowing, seizures, anxiety, agitation and also some confusion,” says Beasley.

If you find a bat in your home:

“It’s important not to release it outside. If you can, first of all, don’t touch it with your bare hands, but try to trap it under a container, and then you can contact your DHEC County Environmental Health office to have that bat tested for rabies,” says Beasley.

Besides bats, other rabies-infested animals in South Carolina include raccoons, foxes, skunks and other wild animals.

Filed Under: Environment & Conservation, Health & Medicine, News
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