Air Quality Contacts
For more information, please contact Victoria Martinez (787-771-2524).
Also available in PDF, 224KB
On November 27, 2018, FHWA posted guidance to clarify implementation of 23 CFR Part 667: Periodic Evaluation of Facilities Repeatedly Requiring Repair and Reconstruction Due to Emergency Events. This guidance, in the form of Q&As, has been developed in response to questions received from State Departments of Transportation (DOTs) regarding how the evaluations should be conducted, maintained, and used.
The FY 2018 Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement (CMAQ) Program annual reports are due by March 1, 2019. These reports should reflect all the projects for which CMAQ funds were obligated in Federal Fiscal Year 2018. Reporting should include 1) all projects administered by FHWA for which there were CMAQ obligations in FY 2018, and 2) all transfers to FTA or other Federal agencies during the fiscal year. It is critically important that you submit the most complete and accurate annual report of CMAQ projects since data derived from these reports may be used in validating the CMAQ Performance Measurement process. The March 1 deadline is for FHWA Divisions to review and approve reports in the web-based CMAQ Project Tracking System. Consequently, States, MPOs, and other project sponsors providing input should have entered the data well before the March deadline to ensure adequate time for Division review.
The CMAQ Project Tracking System includes "help" pages to assist users in recording their project data. In addition, the User's Guide for the CMAQ Tracking System is available at: https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/air_quality/cmaq/reporting/tracking_system/index.cfm. If you have questions concerning the submission of the report, please contact Mark Glaze at 202-366-4053 or Mark.Glaze@dot.gov.
On January 31st, FHWA will present an instructional webinar from 2:00 to 3:30 EST to demonstrate CMAQ project data entry for the Annual Reporting Process. Topics to be covered will include: new project entry, editing and deletion; subsequent project entry, editing and deletion; project accessibility and approval; and the bulk project upload process. Question and answer periods will be included in the format. Call-in: 888-273-3658; Access code: 6421957; Adobe Connect: https://connectdot.connectsolutions.com/burtonwheeler/
On November 29, 2018, EPA released Transportation Conformity Guidance for the South Coast II Court Decision. The document provides guidance to address how transportation conformity can be implemented in areas affected by the February 16, 2018 decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in South Coast Air Quality Management District v. EPA ("South Coast II," 882 F.3d 1138). Specifically, this guidance describes how transportation conformity applies in areas that were nonattainment or maintenance for the 1997 ozone NAAQS (at the time that NAAQS was revoked) as well as designated attainment for the 2008 ozone NAAQS.
EPA provided a Resource Document and supporting technical information to assist states in developing maintenance plans for certain areas that were designated as nonattainment or redesignated to maintenance for the 1997 Ozone NAAQS prior to its revocation. The Resource Document also discusses the option of developing a "limited maintenance plan" for certain areas. The following resources are available via EPA's website:
EPA has released a new report on summarizing findings about vehicle miles of travel (VMT) and emissions impacts of travel efficiency strategies using the Travel Efficiency Assessment Method (TEAM). The report, Applying TEAM in Regional Sketch Planning: Four Case Studies summarizes strategies used in Puget Sound, WA; Champaign, IL; Lake Charles, LA; and the State of Connecticut.
EPA continues to develop and refine TEAM, an approach to quantify the potential emission benefits of travel efficiency strategies. TEAM uses available travel data and a transportation sketch model analysis to quantify the change in VMT resulting from travel efficiency strategies. In a TEAM analysis, VMT and emissions are estimated in the future "Business as Usual" (BAU) case that does not include the strategies. Then VMT and emissions estimated in future strategy scenarios are compared against the BAU case. Emission factors are developed using the current version of EPA's MOVES (Motor Vehicle Emission Simulator) model. TEAM allows for the analysis of potential travel efficiency strategies to reduce emissions without having to run an area's travel demand model, saving time and resources.
FHWA published a report summarizing the discussion and results of an additional, recent peer exchange on the use of renewable energy technologies in the highway right-of-way. This report summarizes a peer exchange on September 25-26, 2018 with participation from the State DOTs of Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and California. This report is the latest in a series summarizing the results of peer exchanges that brought together practitioners to discuss accommodating renewable energy technologies such as solar in highway rights-of-way. Peer exchanges were held in multiple regions of the country between 2017 and 2018. See the Renewable Energy in Highway Right-of-Way website for more information on research and past peer exchanges.
On January 3 and 24 FHWA released two new module for its CMAQ Emissions Calculator Tool Kit Titled Diesel Idle Reduction Technologies and Bicycle and Pedestrian Improvements. These modules encompass multiple tools to calculate air quality benefits for a variety of CMAQ eligible projects https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/air_quality/cmaq/toolkit/. Note that these tools are not suitable for calculating emissions for either Transportation Conformity or SIP related documentation.
The National Transit Institute (NTI) is offering in-person training opportunities via its "Introduction to Transportation Conformity" course. This 2.5-day course presents basic information about conformity requirements and the relationship of the transportation and air quality planning processes in order to prepare agency staff (federal, state and local) to participate in interagency consultation and work effectively in resolving conformity issues. Upcoming training sessions include February 2019 in St. Louis, MO; and March 2019 in Oakland, CA. For more information and to register, please visit the NTI registration website.
As a reminder, several web-based transportation conformity training opportunities are available on-demand from FHWA's conformity training website (under "Web-based Training"). These training opportunities range in level of detail from a short 27-minute video providing a high-level basic overview of transportation conformity to a detailed set of 32 self-directed training modules. Recordings of two webinars were added recently: basic transportation conformity overview (June 12, 2018, 70 minutes) and basic MOVES emissions model training (June 18, 2018, 42 minutes).
The target audience for these training materials are FHWA staff and State and local transportation partners (MPOs and State DOTs) who are either new to or would like a refresher training on the conformity process. For questions, please contact David Kall, FHWA Office of Natural Environment, via e-mail (david.kall@dot.gov) or phone (202-366-6276)
The FHWA posted a 27-minute YouTube video on the CMAQ program. The video provides a basic introduction to the program, how CMAQ funds are distributed to states, and the types of projects eligible for the CMAQ program. The training is available via the FHWA's YouTube channel. For more information about the CMAQ program, please contact Mark Glaze at mark.glaze@dot.gov or (202) 366-4053.
The FHWA Resource Center Planning and Air Quality team will be conducting a series of training sessions on NEPA Air Quality Analysis for Highway Projects. The training includes sessions on project-level applications appropriate for managers and practitioners, as well as hands-on sessions intended for modelers. Please note this is not a general MOVES training course, but is focused on project-level applications. It is not intended to address regional applications, such as SIP emissions inventories or regional (plan and TIP) conformity analyses. If you are interested in this training, please contact Michael Claggett at michael.claggett@dot.gov.
Two training opportunities are available for MOVES model users. A three-hour webinar provides an introduction to MySQL Query Browser and MOVES interface. A six-hour training over two days will enable users to do MySQL programming and to write their own MySQL scripts and to manipulate MySQL databases including MOVES input and outputs. For more information or to schedule training, please contact Michael Claggett at michael.claggett@dot.gov.
The National Highway Institute (NHI) Air Quality Planning web-based training series is designed for transportation practitioners. It includes four modules: Clean Air Act Overview (FHWA-NHI-142068), State Implementation Plan (SIP) and Transportation Control Measure (TCM) Requirements and Policies (FHWA-NHI-142069), SIP Development Process (FHWA-NHI-142070), and Transportation Conformity (FHWA-NHI-142071). All courses are free. For more information, visit the NHI website and search "Air Quality Planning," or look for the specific course number. Please contact Karen Perritt at (202) 366-9066, or Karen.Perritt@dot.gov with any questions or comments.
Past issues of the Air Quality and Sustainability Highlights are available on FHWA's website: http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/air_quality/conformity/highlights/ or https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/sustainability/newsletter/.
Please e-mail Victoria.Martinez@dot.gov with any suggestions for future issues.
