DHEC environment chief quits

Two of the state Department of Health and Environmental Control’s highest ranking environmental officials have left their positions at the agency, less than six months after new DHEC director Catherine Heigel took charge.

Elizabeth Dieck has resigned as chief of environmental affairs at DHEC, according to a Friday afternoon email to employees from Heigel. An attempt to reach Dieck was unsuccessful.

Sara Bazemore also recently left her job as director of DHEC’s coastal division for a position with the department’s legal office, Bazemore confirmed. She declined further comment.

In all, three top officials have departed or transferred since Heigel became agency director in June. Health division director Jamie Shuster quit about six weeks after Heigel became director.

DHEC, with about 3,400 employees, is one of the state’s largest agencies, overseeing both environmental permitting and public health.

Heigel, a former top official with Duke Energy in South Carolina, was not available for comment. Her 5:22 p.m. Friday email announcing Dieck’s departure provided few details about why Dieck was leaving. An agency spokeswoman said DHEC does not comment on personnel matters.

“It is with mixed emotions that I announce that Elizabeth Dieck has resigned her position as director of environmental affairs,’’ Heigel’s Friday email message said.

Both Dieck and Bazemore were the choices of former director Catherine Templeton, who quit in January. Dieck was on an executive team brought in by Templeton in 2012. Templeton named Bazemore coastal division director last November.

Dieck, whose division has been under scrutiny since a series of DHEC-regulated dams broke during a storm last month, was considered one of the more experienced members of Templeton’s 2012 executive management team because Dieck had formerly worked with DHEC as a coastal division lawyer.

Bazemore also previously worked as a DHEC lawyer before Templeton named her head of the coastal division.

In Friday’s email, Heigel named veteran regulator Myra Reece to head the agency’s environmental division on an interim basis. Reece has run DHEC’s air bureau since 2004. The department hopes to name a permanent replacement for Dieck in the next 90 days, spokeswoman Jennifer Read said.

Heigel’s Friday email said Reece, who has headed the agency’s air division since 2004, “brings more than 30 years of institutional knowledge and experience with DHEC to her new interim role. Please join me in welcoming Myra to this new acting position.’’

The position of director of environmental affairs that Dieck held pays $132,600. The environmental division at DHEC decides whether to approve water, air and land permits sought by industry and businesses, while also monitoring air and water quality.

The coastal division decides environmental permits in the state’s eight coastal counties. Bazemore’s job as coastal director paid about $100,000. Elizabeth Von Kolnitz, also a veteran DHEC regulator, has been named interim director of the coastal division, Read said. DHEC is seeking to fill the job with a permanent replacement in 90 days, Read said.

State Sen. Joel Lourie, D-Richland, said he has confidence in Heigel as agency director. He said he’s been impressed with her leadership, particularly after last month’s devastating floods in several areas of the state, including the Midlands.

“I have great respect for director Heigel and I’m confident any personnel moves that she makes are in the best long-term interests of the agency,’’ Lourie said. “I admire her greatly for how she has handled one crisis after another.’’

This story was originally published November 2, 2015 at 7:20 PM with the headline "DHEC environment chief quits."