Is organic carbon the same thing as organic compounds?
Organic compounds typically refers to particular, identified compounds and/or compound classes.

Organic carbon, ususally expressed as total organic carbon (TOC), is a relevant term in waste (water) management.

In this context the total carbon (TC) is expressed as the sum of total inorganic carbon (TIC) and total organic carbon (TOC).

TIC and TOC are often measured as the amount of $\ce{CO2}$ liberated from a sample.


UPDATE

While Ivan Netetin's remark on the broader context is certainly true, terms like TOC and COD (in German CSB), the chemical oxygen demand, play an important legal role in the question whether and under which conditions waste water may be submitted to the public sewer systems. This involves water directly from procdution processes, as as the elution of material from from landfills.

In Germany, this is specified in the Abwasserverordnung - AbwV. Here, §6(3) states


  Ein nach dieser Verordnung einzuhaltender oder in der wasserrechtlichen Zulassung festgesetzter Wert für den Chemischen Sauerstoffbedarf (CSB) gilt unter Beachtung von Absatz 1 auch als eingehalten, wenn der vierfache Wert des gesamten organisch gebundenen Kohlenstoffs (TOC), bestimmt in Milligramm je Liter, diesen Wert nicht überschreitet.


Translated to non-legalese English, this means: Business-specific limits are considered to be met (= it is legal to submit the water to the sewer) if the fourfold TOC does not exceed the COD given by law.