Jackson Free Press

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Trudy Fisher, Mississippi's chief environmental regulator, will resign her post at the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality at the end of the summer.

Fisher, 53, announced the news Wednesday to agency employees in an email obtained by The Associated Press. She said she will "explore options outside state government" after taking a break.

Fisher was appointed by Gov. Haley Barbour in 2007 and held over by Gov. Phil Bryant.

"I want to thank Trudy Fisher for her seven years of service as the executive director of the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality," Bryant said in a statement. "During her time with MDEQ her hard work has been critical to the state after disasters like Hurricane Katrina and leading the recovery from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill."

A former general counsel at MDEQ, the lawyer was working for the Jackson-based Brunini, Grantham, Grower & Hewes law firm when she was named. In a four-page statement posted to MDEQ's website, Fisher said she always intended to go back to private work.

"I have always been adamant that sitting directors should not entertain other professional opportunities and I still believe that," Fisher wrote. "For that reason, I will transition out of this role and hope to complete that transition by late summer."

Fisher and MDEQ have been leading planning efforts on how Mississippi should spend money from BP PLC — the RESTORE ACT funds — arising from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

"Fisher's departure will not affect any planning of the RESTORE Act funds," Bryant spokeswoman Nicole Webb said.

Fisher noted than $83 million in restoration projects for the Mississippi Gulf Coast have been approved, and the state is making plans to spend $356 million in money that will be conveyed by the National Fish and Wildlife Federation.

"Making one of the world's richest companies 'do right' by our state has been and continues to be a heavy lift, but one of the most meaningful efforts I have ever worked on," Fisher wrote in the statement.

MDEQ has faced a lawsuit by journalist and consultant Michael Rejebian, who sued the agency after it turned over heavily redacted records relating to how the state has spent more than $4.88 million on legal work relating to the oil spill since late 2010.

Bryant will appoint a new director, who must be confirmed by the state Senate.