Kansas City Manager Wayne Cauthen has appointed Dennis Murphey as the city's chief environmental officer.

Murphey will start April 3, the city said in a written release Friday.

Last year, as part of Cauthen's realignment of various city departments, the Environmental Management Department was discontinued and its functions split between the Public Works Department and Cauthen's office, city spokeswoman Mary Charles said.

Murphey's salary as Kansas City's chief environmental officer is $95,000 a year, Charles said.

Murphey is the chief environmental regulatory official overseeing chemical weapons destruction for the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality in Hermiston, a job he has had since 2003. Before that, he was director of the Office of Environmental Management for Cincinnati from 1997 to 2003 and director of the Center for Environmental Education and Training for the University of Kansas from 1993 to 1997.

He was regulatory compliance manager for Roberts/Schornick & Associates Inc. in Norman, Okla., from 1990 to 1993; director of the Environmental Affairs Office for the National Fertilizer Solutions Association in St. Louis from 1989-1990; director of the Bureau of Waste Management in the Kansas Department of Health and Environment in Topeka from 1984 to 1989; director of the Bureau of Environmental Remediation in the Kansas Department of Health and Environment in Topeka from 1986 to 1987; and manager of the Environmental and Quality Control Office for Agrico Chemical Co. in Catoosa, Okla., from 1976 to 1983.

Murphey has a bachelor's degree in chemistry from Oklahoma City University and a master's in biochemistry from Oklahoma State University.