The Department of Health and Environmental Control, established in 1973, is South Carolina's primary environmental protection agency. The agency's responsibilities were broadened in 1993 by government restructuring, which brought all natural resources permitting under the DHEC umbrella. The former Land Resources Commission and Water Resources Commission were dissolved by restructuring. The DHEC's areas of responsibility include all programs dealing with surface and groundwater protection; air quality; solid, hazardous, infectious and nuclear waste; mining; dam safety; public drinking water protection; shellfish; public swimming pool inspection; and environmental laboratory certification, among other things. In 2002, more than 99% of the state's 1,520 federally defined public water systems had complied with drinking water regulatory requirements.
South Carolina has an aggressive environmental compliance program in all media. Recent convictions for criminal violations have moved the state to the national forefront in this area.
The state has implemented an innovative river basin planning program for the modeling, permitting and protection of its surface water resources. South Carolina's five major river basins are to be studied, modeled, and subsequent permits renewed on a five-year rotating basis. The state's goal is to use the environmental permitting process to assess and control the overall health of the basin systems. In 2002 DHEC implemented programs to help citizens minimize risk of contracting West Nile virus, transmitted by mosquitoes.
South Carolina, as the rest of the nation, is preparing to implement an aggressive air quality permitting program. The state has in place an industrial fee system to support the air program which will include both stationary and mobile source activities.
In 1992, South Carolina passed the Solid Waste Management and Policy Act requiring county and regional solid waste planning to be in conformance with the State Solid Waste Management Plan. The state has in place innovative programs for source reduction, waste minimization, and recycling. Regulations have been approved for municipal and industrial waste land disposal systems, incineration, construction, and land clearing debris and other solid waste activities.
South Carolina has implemented aggressive regulatory reform. Coupled with "streamlined permitting," customer-friendly programs promote economic development without sacrificing environmental protection. In 2003, South Carolina had 194 hazardous waste sites listed in the Environmental Protection Agency's database, 25 of which were on the National Priorities List. In 2001, South Carolina received $57,098,000 in federal grants from the Environmental Protection Agency; EPA expenditures for procurement contracts in South Carolina that year amounted to $14,000.