Gov. Nathan Deal announced Monday that Richard Dunn will head the state’s Environmental Protection Division, a key state agency charged with protecting Georgia’s air, water and land.
Dunn replaces Judson Turner, who’s handling Georgia’s “water war” — the decades-long battle over an equitable distribution of the Chattahoochee and Flint rivers — with Florida and Alabama.
Dunn is currently the deputy director of the Governor’s Office of Planning and Budget. His EPD plate will be full: Chattahoochee River flows; coal ash regulations; coastal marshlands protections; groundwater supplies; and Washington-mandated clean air plans.
He has previously served as director of the office’s Health and Human Services Division. Dunn was also deputy chief of staff for the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities.
Lauren Curry, currently the chief of staff for the Georgia Emergency Management/Homeland Security Agency, will become the EPD’s deputy director. She previously served as public affairs director for the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.
“I am confident that Dunn and Curry will continue advancing Georgians’ interests in a new capacity as they manage and protect Georgia’s most valuable resources,” Deal said in a statement.
Deal will recommend Dunn and Curry to the DNR board for approval at its scheduled meeting in June.
“The Sierra Club hopes that the new director will restore the people’s trust in the EPD,” said Mark Woodall, the legislative chairman for the environmental group’s Georgia chapter.
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