High-level job vacancies filled at DHEC

Two of the highest-ranking posts at South Carolina’s environmental protection agency have been filled by veteran regulators, who will oversee programs to monitor air and water pollution across the state.

The Department of Health and Environmental Control named David Baize director of the department’s water division and Rhonda Thompson director of its air division. Both have been acting directors of the divisions while DHEC environment chief Myra Reece sought to fill the jobs permanently.

Both positions, which pay $96,500, are high-pressure jobs. As director in the water bureau, Baize’s staff considers permits to discharge pollution into water and to fill wetlands, as well as oversees the state’s drinking water program. That program has been in the news lately as South Carolina looks for way to reduce potential lead exposure in drinking water following the Flint, Mich., crisis.

Thompson’s staff weighs industrial requests to release air pollution and monitors the quality of air in South Carolina. Among its duties are issuing ozone alerts when air quality worsens during hot summer months.

Thompson, a McCormick County native, replaces Reece as air bureau director. Reece vacated the air division last year to accept the top environmental job at DHEC. Baize replaces David Wilson, who is DHEC’s senior director of legislative affairs.

Baize has more than 27 years of experience, having served previously as director of DHEC’s water quality monitoring program. He has undergraduate and graduate degrees from Western Kentucky University. Thompson has been an assistant air bureau chief since 2007. She has more than 25 years of experience and is a graduate of the University of South Carolina.

“The agency will be well served under their combined technical knowledge and expertise,’’ Reece said in a statement Tuesday. “ I look forward to our continued work together in protecting the public health and environment of South Carolina.”

This story was originally published April 26, 2016 at 9:06 PM with the headline "High-level job vacancies filled at DHEC."