Unlike the highway department, DHEC has no power to consider an applicant's past record before granting a license. If a company says it will comply with minimal federal pollution standards, it gets the permit. Only after the company violates conditions of its permit does DHEC have the power to assert any authority. T he Laidlaw toxic waste incinerator in Roebuck provides a case study of DHEC being all carrot and no stick. After Laidlaw racked up 1,044 violations of its water quality permit between 1987 and 1993, a local citizens' group disgusted with DHEC's refusal to take the company to court filed its own lawsuit.
Federal laws allow for fines that remove the financial benefit a company gains from polluting.
Two years later, when the incinerator was finally brought into compliance, DHEC rewarded the company by granting a request to increase the amount of its daily toxic releases. This past July, DHEC admitted to residents who live near the incinerator that a preliminary study indicates that their cancer rates are five times higher than they should be. According to Guild, DHEC's backing of the Audit Bill was not a departure from past policy. And it completely eliminates their ability to determine the economic benefit enjoyed by the polluters who violate emission control standards. We intend to continue documenting our progress in protecting the state's vital natural resources and the health of its people while assisting South Carolina's economy.