The South Carolina agency charged with environmental monitoring of the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site near Aiken, S.C., will split into two separate organizations on July 1.
Under a measure passed in 2023 by the state legislature, the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) is becoming two separate agencies: the South Carolina Department of Environmental Services and South Carolina Public Health. On its restructuring page, DHEC said it is working with the state Department of Administration to ensure no key chores slip through the cracks.
The newly carved out environmental agency will oversee DOE’s Savannah River Site, DHEC regulatory manager Susan Fulmer told DOE’s advisory committee for the site last May.
In 1995, DOE, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and DHEC jointly approved the Environmental Surveillance and Oversight Program for the 310-square mile Savannah River Site.
The state agency shakeup happens as the Savannah River Site is undergoing its own federal restructuring. DOE’s semi-autonomous National Nuclear Security Administration is scheduled to take over Oct. 1 as landlord of the nuclear complex from DOE’s Office of Environmental Management.
The weapons agency planned to solicit bids for a new site management and operations contractor this spring, Jill Hruby, administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration said in February.
