Dr. Carol Couch

Dr. Couch has served as the director of the Georgia Environmental Protection Division since January 2004. The mission of EPD is to provide Georgia’s citizens with clean air, clean water, healthy lives and productive land by assuring compliance with environmental laws and by assisting others to do their part for a better environment.

What are some of the biggest environmental problems you feel Georgians face today?

Georgia’s population has doubled in the last 25 years and is projected to double again in the next 25 years. This population increase has been accompanied by sprawling development patterns that contribute to the rate at which our air and water are polluted.

More people driving greater distances between home, work and play equals more air pollution. Urban and suburban land use is associated with greater storm water runoff, which carries sediment and pollutants from our streets and lawns into streams.

Currently, the air breathed by a majority of Georgians does not meet air quality standards for ozone or particulate matter during parts of the year. Most Georgians live and continue to settle in regions of the state where the quantity and quality of our water resources are showing signs of strain.

Given these current circumstances, ultimately our biggest environmental challenge is to place Georgia on a path that supports environmentally sustainable growth.

How is EPD responding to these problems?

Many of the tools that EPD can bring to bear are regulatory approaches such as permitting, compliance and enforcement of environmental laws. These tools are most effective in controlling pollution from point sources such as smokestacks and discharge pipes. For example, the metro Atlanta region is now meeting the “onehour” ozone standard due in large part to emission reductions from power plants.

Downstream of our major cities, rivers once seriously polluted by sewage discharges are now much cleaner. While progress has been made and will continue to be necessary for point source control, regulation is less effective in controlling pollution from the nonpoint sources that are the greatest contributors to pollution.

EPD continues to partner and become engaged with government agencies, business associations and other non-governmental organizations to encourage the establishment of policies or programs that can mitigate the causes or prevent the effects of non-point source pollution.

What are some of the challenges EPD faces in implementing meaningful environmental policies?

Transportation and land use policies and planning are essential to meaningful progress on mitigating pollution to air and water—they are in essence, either by default or design, “environmental policies.” EPD has the challenge of being more effective in assisting other agencies that have the direct responsibility for determining and implementing transportation and development policies.

EPD has been historically underfunded for the responsibilities that it does direct or administer. The funding crisis has been worsened by several years of budget cuts and the lack of appropriation of fees that have been collected for specific purposes such as hazardous and solid waste, and erosion control programs.