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Federal Clear Air Act Impacts on Transportation Funding: Sanctions, Lapses, and Freezes

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Federal Clear Air Act Impacts on Transportation Funding: Sanctions, Lapses, and Freezes

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    1. Federal Clear Air Act Impacts on Transportation Funding: Sanctions, Lapses, and Freezes San Joaquin Valley Transportation Planning Agencies

    2. Federal Clean Air Act of 1990 The “Hammer” falls on Federal Transportation Funding – Rarely used Hammer triggered by failure to demonstrate attainment of Standards for: Ozone PM10, CO New standards coming as science improves and studies are completed.

    3. Federal Clean Air Act Attainment Status For Kern

    5. Current Air Basin Attainment Classifications in Kern San Joaquin Valley Air Basin Portion 1hr. Ozone (VOC & NOx): Severe Nonattainment (Proposed bump up to Extreme by January 2004) PM10 (VOC & NOx precursors): Serious Nonattainment CO: Attainment Maintenance

    6. Proposed Air Basin Classifications in Kern San Joaquin Valley Air Basin 8hr. Ozone (VOC & NOx): proposed Serious Non-attainment (could replace 1hr. standard) PM2.5 (VOC, Ammonia, precursors): highest readings in the valley in Kern.

    7. Air Basin Attainment Classifications in East Kern Mojave Desert Air Basin 1hr. Ozone (VOC & NOx): Serious Non- attainment Attainment demonstration to be considered by US EPA Spring 2004. Monitoring data demonstrates attainment of standard for past 3yrs. Proposed 8hr. Ozone: Non-attainment Proposed PM2.5: Non-attainment likely Indian Wells Valley Planning Area PM10: Moderate reclassified as attainment for Federal Proposed PM2.5: Non-attainment likely Attainment for Ozone 1hr. And unclassified 8hr.

    8. Proposed Air Basin Attainment New 8 Hr. Ozone Standard

    9. Proposed Air Basin Attainment For PM2.5 Standard

    10. Ozone Monitoring Sites

    11. Ozone 1hr. & 8hr. – Bear Mtn.

    12. PM10 Monitoring Sites

    13. PM10 - Golden State Hwy

    14. Sources of Air Pollution

    15. Sources of Ozone in Kern

    16. Sources of PM10 in Kern

    17. 2001 Sources of Air Quality Emissions Ozone – Top 3 Sources (tons per day) SJV SJV Kern E. Kern - Heavy Duty Diesel Trucks 80 18 <1 - Light/Medium Duty Trucks 68 14 2 - Farm Equipment 65 5 <1 PM-10 – Top 3 Sources (tons per day) SJV SJV Kern E. Kern - Unpaved Roads 115 19 10 - Farm Operations 111 15 7 - Paved Roads 65 11 1

    18. Avoiding The Hammer: Highway Sanctions and Conformity Lapses/Freezes

    19. Two Types of Interruptions to Transportation Funding Highway Sanctions on Air District Plans and Rules Conformity Lapse/Freeze of Planned Transportation Projects - The TIP and RTP must not make the air any worse.

    20. Two Areas for Invoking Highway Sanctions For Plans: The Air District’s State Implementation Plans (SIP) For Rules: The Air District’s Rules required by a SIP to demonstrate attainment

    21. Sanctions: The 2-Year Clock The Clock 18 mo. 2-1 offsets for Stationary Sources 6 mo. later – Highway Sanctions Besides conformity which we have been dealing with since 1993, emerging issues are the staff-time intensive RACM process and the clicking of highway sanction clocks on 6 Air District rules.Besides conformity which we have been dealing with since 1993, emerging issues are the staff-time intensive RACM process and the clicking of highway sanction clocks on 6 Air District rules.

    22. What Projects do Highway Sanctions Affect? • Exempt projects may proceed. (Not capacity increasing) • Transportation related Control Measures (TCMs, RACM, BACM) for improving air quality in approved SIPs may proceed. • In general, Federal Title 49 projects (Transit, Aviation, …) may proceed (unless capacity increasing). • In general, Federal Title 23 funded projects (Highways) will be halted. $2Billion in SJV

    23. Conformity Lapses and Freezes The eight San Joaquin Valley Transportation Plans for spending federal funds must show that they wont make the air any worse. This is called “conformity“ with the air standards set by the Federal Clean Air Act. The Valley is required to show conformity as a whole, and each county must also conform to their individual sub-regional emissions budget. The Valley is required to show conformity as a whole, and each county must also conform to their individual sub-regional emissions budget.

    24. Conformity Lapses happen when… A Region fails to submit a adequate analysis of its future transportation plans on time. A minimum of every 3 years or as significant capacity amendments to the plan occur. A Region is under highway sanctions. The Valley is required to show conformity as a whole, and each county must also conform to their individual sub-regional emissions budget. The Valley is required to show conformity as a whole, and each county must also conform to their individual sub-regional emissions budget.

    25. Conformity Lapse Funding Exemptions: • In general, both Title 23 (Highway) and Title 49 (Transit, Aviation…) projects will be halted. • There are six types of transportation projects may proceed for purposes of funding

    26. Conformity Lapse Funding Exemptions 1. Exempt Projects (non-capacity increasing) 2. TCMs in Approved SIPs 3. Non-Regionally Significant Non-federal Projects 4. Approved Regionally Significant Non-federal Projects 5. Previously Conformed Projects, which have received funding commitments for construction, Plans, Specifications & Estimates (PS&E) approval, Full Funding Grant Agreements (FFGA) or equivalent approvals. 6. Traffic Synchronization Projects

    27. Conformity Freeze: Conformity Freeze kicks-in when an Air District Plan (SIP) disapproval by EPA makes the budgets for demonstrating conformity invalid. Its not as bad as a full lapse. • Exempt projects may proceed. • Projects in the first 3 years of the TIP/RTP cycle may proceed. • No new TIP/RTP conformity findings until EPA determines conformity budgets to be adequate.

    28. Kern COGs: Proactive Approach Since 1993 Kern COG has allocated $20 million to replace 120 diesel transit vehicles with alternative fuels. Coordinated RACM/BACM Process for Local Government Control Measures Kern Regional Transportation Modeling Committee oversees Modeling of future projects for Conformity. San Joaquin Valley Transportation Air Quality Coordination MOU Valleywide Air Quality Coordinator If an area is growing, the conformity assessment becomes a kind of “early warning device” showing that emissions are not gong to remain at attainment levels for long without some kind of action. At a minimum these actions would be projection of emissions for other sources, and development of additional control measures. Since MPOs have no ability or authority to make these projections or develop rules (other than TCMs which usually have marginal effects on emissions), they are completely stuck if emissions are growing but must be capped at attainment levels. If an area is growing, the conformity assessment becomes a kind of “early warning device” showing that emissions are not gong to remain at attainment levels for long without some kind of action. At a minimum these actions would be projection of emissions for other sources, and development of additional control measures. Since MPOs have no ability or authority to make these projections or develop rules (other than TCMs which usually have marginal effects on emissions), they are completely stuck if emissions are growing but must be capped at attainment levels.

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