New DHEC chief has ties to power industry

The nominee to run the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control has an extensive background working with electric power companies that are regulated by the agency.

Catherine Heigel, a Greenville lawyer, spent 15 years as an attorney and executive with Duke Energy, including a two year-stint as the company’s president for South Carolina.

Her work included helping Duke develop company positions on air pollution and waste regulations, while working with environmental groups on energy efficiency, new nuclear plants and hydro electric issues, Heigel said in a statement of qualifications released to the media.

Today, she is a member of the state-owned Santee Cooper power company’s 12-member governing board. Heigel, who worked at Duke from 1997-2012, was confirmed by the Senate for the Santee Cooper board position last May.

Heigel’s background in environmental regulation is a substantial improvement over the inexperienced Eleanor Kitzman, the DHEC board’s failed choice for the job in February, say some of Kitzman’s chief critics.

But Heigel’s history with Duke and Santee Cooper also is likely to prompt questions at the Senate’s confirmation hearings next month, said Sen. Darrell Jackson, a Columbia Democrat and member of the screening committee. The board chose Heigel late Friday afternoon.

While Jackson said he’s impressed with Heigel’s qualifications so far, “I do want to get into’’ her background with power companies.

Duke and Santee Cooper need an array of state permits to operate power plants. Those include permits to release air pollution and to discharge treated wastewater to creeks and lakes.

They also have been subject to enforcement actions by DHEC during the past 25 years. The two companies have collectively been fined more than $180,000 for environmental violations since the early 1990s, enforcement records show.

Attempts to reach Heigel, an Ohio State law graduate who has studied at Oxford University in England, have been unsuccessful.

DHEC is one of the state’s largest agencies, with about 3,500 employees. It considers permits to discharge pollution and expand hospitals, among other things, while also checking water quality and enforcing environmental and health laws.

Congaree Riverkeeper Bill Stangler and environmental lawyers Frank Holleman and Bob Guild said they had questions about how she would handle regulation of the utility industry, a big user of water and a source of air pollution. Power companies have been among the largest critics of a raft of tighter air pollution rules pushed by the federal government in recent years.

“One of the major roles of DHEC is to oversee environmental compliance of Duke and Santee Cooper,’’ said Holleman, who is with the Southern Environmental Law Center. “They do have major nuclear facilities and have significant (pollution) discharges’’ to rivers.

Holleman said one of the biggest issues facing Duke today is cleaning up contaminated coal ash ponds in Anderson and Darlington counties.

While she was president of Duke in South Carolina from 2010 to 2012, Heigel’s company knew that coal ash dams in Anderson County were subject to leaks but did not fix the problem, Holleman said. Duke has in the past year pledged to remove the ash from its Lee power plant in Anderson County, but has made no commitment on an ever-growing coal ash pollution problem at its Robinson plant in Darlington County, he said.

The company faces potential fines from DHEC, including one over last fall’s discovery that groundwater beneath the ash waste pond in Darlington County contained unsafe -- and illegally high -- levels of arsenic.

“There are many issues hanging in the balance at Robinson,’’ Holleman said. “Will (the pond) be required to be cleaned up? What will DHEC’s ultimate action on the violation be for arsenic found in groundwater?’’

It was not known Monday if Heigel has any financial interest in Santee Cooper or Duke, but the head of a government watchdog group said she should give up any such interests if they exist. Otherwise, she could be in the position of having her agency regulate an industry for which she has a financial stake, said John Crangle, who heads S.C. Common Cause.

Despite those questions, Jackson and Conservation Voters of South Carolina director Ann Timberlake said Heigel seems to be far more qualified than Kitzman.

Both said the DHEC board appears to have offered a better choice after seeking applications and interviewing candidates for the $154,000-per-year post. All told, 99 people applied. In Kitzman’s case, the board did not seek any candidates to replace Catherine Templeton, who quit in January, but instead took Gov. Nikki Haley’s recommendation of her friend Kitzman. Kitzman withdrew her nomination in February after an intense Senate confirmation hearing.

“The people I’ve talked to who have worked with her have said nothing but good things about her,’’ Jackson said of Heigel.

According to a statement of qualifications given to DHEC, Heigel said her 20 years of legal, regulatory and executive management experience would be an asset in running DHEC.

“The electric utility industry has a significant impact on the environment and, accordingly, is subject to substantial environmental regulation at both the state and federal level,’’ she wrote. “Throughout my career, I have had to address myriad issues flowing from this regulation.’’

She was picked by the DHEC board last week, beating out the director of Pennsylvania’s health agency and a former top lawyer with an agency similar to DHEC in Kansas.

The DHEC board did not explain specifically why it preferred Heigel over the other two finalists, but the agency issued a statement Monday saying she was the best choice.

“With her strong background and leadership skills, Heigel was selected as the best candidate to continue the board’s vision for the agency,’’ the statement said. “Drawing on her collective knowledge in management and law, the board believes that she has the necessary expertise and ability to make the right decisions for the benefit of the health and environment of all South Carolinians.”

This story was originally published April 27, 2015 at 9:26 PM with the headline "New DHEC chief has ties to power industry."