South Carolina cleans old DHEC names out of state law

A new South Carolina law is cleaning old DHEC references out of state code so people filing permits, licenses or appeals do not get sent to the wrong office. It replaces the Department of Health and Environmental Control — DHEC — with the Department of Public Health and the Department of Environmental Services.

That matters because agency names in state law are not just labels. They help determine who has the authority to act, who hears a challenge, and which rules apply when someone is dealing with a permit, a license or an appeal. If the law still points to a former agency, people can end up in the wrong place or follow the wrong process.

The proposal is a broad cleanup tied to Act 60 of 2023, the law that split up the old department. It does not create a new program. It is trying to make the legal language match the government structure that exists now in South Carolina.

What the rewrite changes

The bill reaches across many parts of the South Carolina Code. It amends a long list of sections to remove references to the former Department of Health and Environmental Control, the former Board of Health and Environmental Control and other old terms tied to the pre-split structure.

It also directs the Code Commissioner of the Legislative Council to correct any remaining references in state law. The goal is to reflect the transfers of authority and responsibility that Act 60 of 2023 already placed with the Department of Public Health, the Department of Environmental Services and other agencies named in that law.

That kind of cleanup can sound small, but it has real value. State codes tend to connect one subject to another through cross-references. When an agency is renamed or split, those connections can break. This bill is meant to restore them so the law reads the way the government now operates.

The measure also repeals a set of DHEC-specific sections that no longer fit the reorganized structure. In practice, that closes the door on old provisions that could otherwise linger in the code and create confusion for anyone trying to find the current rule.

Permits, licenses and appeals

The people most likely to feel this cleanup are permit holders, licensees, certificate holders and others who deal with agency decisions. The bill says that if a staff decision involving a permit, license, registration or certification was already pending review before the old Board of Health and Environmental Control, and no final agency decision had been reached by the effective date of the act, that matter would automatically become a final agency decision.

After that, an applicant or affected person could seek a contested case hearing before the Administrative Law Court under the procedures now tied to the new agency structure. In plain language, the bill is trying to make sure that disputes keep moving through a clear process even though the old department no longer exists in the same form.

It also points to uniform procedures for contested cases and appeals from the Department of Environmental Services and the Department of Public Health. Where those procedures conflict with other statutes or rules, the bill says the newer, specific procedures control.

That is especially important in administrative law, where the right office matters as much as the underlying issue. A business responding to an enforcement action, a resident challenging a decision, or a property owner working through a permit problem needs a clear path. The bill is meant to make that path easier to see.

Environmental duties move with the split

The measure also reflects the environmental side of the restructuring. It says the regulation of minerals and mineral interests on public land, along with geothermal resources under Chapter 9 of Title 10, is transferred to and incorporated into the Department of Environmental Services.

The bill language also says that department may lease development rights to geothermal resources under state-owned surface lands. It would have to set regulations covering how leases are obtained, the terms of the leases and what is owed to the state under those lease operations.

Another part of the bill gives the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources a role as the exclusive agent for selecting lands to be leased and handling the competitive bidding and lease administration. That means the environmental side of the state’s land and energy rules would still rely on coordination with a separate resource agency.

These provisions show how broad the split from DHEC really was. The change was not only about health services. It also touched environmental oversight, land use questions and the state’s handling of natural resources that can carry economic value.

Public health authority gets its own lane

On the health side, the bill reinforces the Department of Public Health as the state’s lead public health agency. One section says the department is invested with all the rights and duties of organizations of like character and is the sole advisor of the state on public health questions within its limits.

The rewrite also keeps the department’s regional role in view. It says the Department of Public Health may divide the state into health districts and establish advisory boards of health in those districts, with representatives from each county in the district.

That kind of language matters because public health work is often local as well as statewide. Health districts, advisory boards and agency authority all have to line up if the system is going to function smoothly after a major reorganization.

The bill also includes language aimed at hearings involving decisions from the Department of Public Health. Courts reviewing those matters are told to take into account the department’s specialized knowledge. That is a sign that lawmakers want the new structure to keep some of the old agency’s subject-matter experience, even as the name and organization change.

Why this cleanup still matters

Government reorganizations often look finished from the outside before the legal details are actually done. Old names can stay buried in the code for a long time. When that happens, confusion can spread through permits, hearings, board authority and day-to-day agency work.

This bill is aimed at preventing that kind of drift in South Carolina. It tells the law to speak the language of the post-DHEC system, and it gives affected people a more direct route to the agency or court that now has the power to act.

For most residents, the change may never be visible. For the people who file applications, fight agency decisions or rely on clear environmental and health rules, it could matter a great deal. In those cases, the difference between an old agency name and the current one is not cosmetic. It can shape the path of a case and the outcome of a dispute.

The larger point is simple. After a state agency is split apart, the code has to catch up. This bill is South Carolina’s effort to finish that job.