The two major S.C. agencies that oversee natural resources sometimes don’t see eye to eye. But their new leaders want them to work more closely.

To encourage that, the new chairmen of the agencies’ policy-setting boards have set up a get-to-know-each-other barbecue Wednesday night at the Millaree Hunt Club in Richland County.

The event is being billed as a social affair for the S.C. Department of Natural Resources and Department of Health and Environmental Control boards and key staff members. No official business is scheduled. But the connections made could have an impact on the state.

Some environmental advocates aren’t sure they want the agencies — which traditionally check and balance each other — to get too cozy.

Mike McShane, new chairman of the DNR board, hopes the social event breeds more cooperation. He hatched the idea of an informal get-together.

“We’ve got these two agencies, one with a science base and one with a regulatory base,” McShane said. “Doesn’t it make sense that these two agencies should be working together?

“We want to project that sense of cooperation from the top down.”

When McShane noticed the DNR and DHEC boards both were meeting Dec. 11 in Columbia, he suggested the barbecue to new DHEC board chair Elizabeth Hagood.

Like McShane, Hagood is a recent appointee of Gov. Mark Sanford from the Charleston area. She and McShane also are friends and share a passion for efficiency. Hagood thought the barbecue was a great idea.

“It’s a natural synergy because we’re both protecting the resources of this state,” Hagood said. “Our goals go hand in glove.”

‘WE’RE STARTING FRESH’

The DHEC-DNR meeting is unusual if not unprecedented, some staffers say. It comes at a time when Sanford is pushing government restructuring. An advisory panel to Sanford has recommended the creation of an environmental secretary. That person would report to Sanford and oversee both agencies, according to the proposal.

Some environmentalists are leery of the idea of merged management, saying it could hurt the system of checks and balances between DHEC and DNR.

But Sanford is considering the recommendation, spokesman Will Folks said, adding this week’s joint DNR-DHEC meeting “absolutely is a good thing.’’

In the past, the two agencies occasionally have feuded. DHEC has fined DNR, for instance, and DNR has sued DHEC.

McShane and Hagood said they know little about past clashes, and they don’t really care about them. “It’s kind of nice not to know the history,” Hagood said. “We’re starting fresh.”

In some cases, the agencies work together well.

During the 1998-2002 drought, for instance, their staffs worked together to convince North Carolina dam operators to keep water flowing in the Pee Dee River system.

But, sometimes, the agencies run afoul of each other.

For much of the 1990s, for example, DNR lawyers battled DHEC over the regulatory agency’s decision to let a hazardous waste landfill operator avoid putting up cash to pay for potential pollution cleanup at its landfill.

DNR took the unusual step of joining a lawsuit against DHEC over the decision not to require a cash trust fund for the Laidlaw/Safety-Kleen landfill, near Lake Marion.

In 2000, the S.C. Court of Appeals and the S.C. Supreme Court sided with the DNR in its push to require a cash trust fund, intended to total more than $100 million for a possible cleanup. But soon thereafter, Safety-Kleen declared bankruptcy without establishing the trust fund.

Jim Quinn, a DNR lawyer who handled the case, said tensions between the agencies were high, although he did not think the Safety-Kleen dispute became personal.

A more recent dispute between the agencies occurred in 2001, when DHEC fined DNR $2,800 for clearing a mountain hillside without state permits. The clearing resulted in “moderate to severe erosion” in the Jocassee Gorges mountain preserve, DHEC said. DNR officials claimed they didn’t need permits and the erosion didn’t pollute trout streams.

‘LOCK STEP IS NOT ALWAYS GOOD’

Quinn said the role of each agency means they will disagree sometimes.

By law, DHEC approves or denies permits to discharge pollution into rivers and creeks; certifies federal decisions to fill wetlands; and decides permits to send pollutants into the air. It also permits hazardous and solid waste landfills.

DNR’s mission is to protect fish and wildlife, and look out for the state’s natural resources. It is routine for DNR staff members to analyze proposals to issue environmental permits that are before DHEC. Sometimes, DNR will advise against permits that DHEC ultimately approves.

Environmental lawyer Jimmy Chandler, who has represented the Sierra Club and the S.C. Coastal Conservation League, said he sees no problem with the joint board meeting. But he’s not in favor of the two agencies becoming so close that they agree on everything.

“Walking in lock step is not always good for the overall good of the public,” Chandler said. “Independence is a very good thing.”

Dell Isham, director of the S.C. chapter of the Sierra Club, agreed the agencies’ different viewpoints can provide a check-and-balance system. He doesn’t want that to change. But he also wants the agencies to get along.

“I think it’s very important that they work together,” Isham said. “Over the years, (the agencies’ cooperation) has improved. They communicate better than they have in the past.”

Isham was concerned about the circumstances of Wednesday’s meeting, which isn’t open to the public. Media lawyers say any gathering of a quorum of a public body should be treated like a public meeting. But DNR’s legal staff said those guidelines don’t apply to a social gathering where no public business will be conducted.

“Those two groups are not supposed to be social clubs, they’re supposed to be regulatory boards,” said John Crangle of Common Cause.

McShane said several media representatives were invited to the meeting. He also said the event won’t cost the state anything. Former DNR board member Marion Burnside offered the use of the hunt club property. McShane is picking up the cost of the food. DNR and DHEC employees volunteered to cook.

Reach Holleman at (803) 771-8366 or jholleman@thestate.com or Fretwell at (803) 771-8537 or sfretwell@thestate.com.