Garnett, a senior enforcement officer in the DAQ Central Office, was recognized for her leadership in dispatching enforcement cases in a timely and professional manner. She serves as organizer and moderator for the DAQ Compliance Workgroup, the principal vehicle for consensus building between the central and regional offices. Kim also serves as the DAQ Pollution Prevention contact, a role that involves working with staff from the EPA Region 4 office and environmental agencies in other Southeastern states.

McEachern, a permits coordinator and environmental engineer, oversees the Raleigh Regional Office permit team as well as writes and reviews permits. Despite staff vacancies, he and other team members ranked first, second and sixth in the number of permits written compared to all DAQ permits staff. Charles personally wrote 65 permits and processed a total of 96 permit actions - tops in the division. Since the DAQ database was initiated, Charles has written 294 permits -- second by only one compared to all of the division's permit writers.

The WNC Air Quality Modeling Team consisted of meteorologists Tom Anderson, Mark Yoder and Jerry Freeman in the Permits Section of the Raleigh Central Office. The team was recognized for its exemplary work in collecting meteorological data and modeling the dispersion of air emissions related to a permit decision in Watauga County. Specifically, the team conducted a study to provide site specific meteorology and refined modeling to more accurately assess the potential air quality impacts from a proposed asphalt plant near Boone. The study results helped the DAQ resolve a controversial permit application as well as better understand the dispersion of air pollutants in the mountain region, knowledge that will benefit future permit considerations.