Air Quality Update

April 22, 2002

TRB Releases CMAQ Assessment Report
Chicago Report Prompts Airport Expansion Worries
Ultra-clean Fuels a Byproduct of Reduced Sulfur

TRB Releases CMAQ Assessment Report

The Transportation Research Board of the National Research Council has completed its lengthy assessment of the Congestion Mitigation Air Quality Improvement (CMAQ) program. An intense two-year effort, the study was released last Thursday.

In response to a Congressional request for an assessment of the program, the TRB formed a 16-member committee of experts to look into CMAQ's ten-year history. The committee was chaired by Martin Wachs, professor of civil and environmental engineering and city and regional planning at the University of California at Berkeley.

Three broadly based tasks were central to the study. Included were an assessment of the effectiveness of projects funded by CMAQ, both quantitative and qualitative; an estimate of the efficiency or cost-effectiveness including costs per ton of emissions reduced; and a comparison of cost-effectiveness of CMAQ projects and other pollution control strategies. In addition to the overall tasks of the study, the researchers sought to answer a number of questions from the Congressional sponsors, such as: How well is the program meeting its primary policy goal of improving air quality? Should more attention be paid to congestion alleviation as an important program policy goal in it is own right? Can the program's qualitative benefits be assessed?

Transportation planners, operating agency staff, air quality officials, and a host of interest groups made up the broad range of parties consulted for the study. Key to the findings of the TRB committee was the vast majority of support for the program's continuation. While not universal, this support was widespread as many areas viewed the program as critical to fund the mandates of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments. In addition, many regions considered "CMAQ-funded TCMs" an additional source of emissions reductions that helped meet transportation conformity requirements.

Also among the results, the committee found that, based solely on emissions reduced per dollar invested, control strategies focusing directly on the reduction itself, e.g. vehicle scrappage programs or inspection & maintenance, have generated more benefits than approaches relying on shifts in travel behavior. In addition, the projected benefits of such scrappage or "cash-for-clunkers," programs surfaced several times over the course of the report.

Overall recommendations from the committee included a positive finding of CMAQ's value and a charge to reauthorize. In addition, the continued emphasis on air quality improvement over congestion mitigation was called for, as the TRB group identified other Federal programs that already address traffic volume issues through infrastructure investment. The researchers also recommended eligibility for any local project that demonstrates the potential to reduce mobile source emissions, such as vehicle scrappage, and more emphasis on efforts directed at freight transport and heavy-duty diesel vehicles.

The report is available through the TRB publications office. More information is available through the board's website at www.trb.org.

Chicago Report Prompts Airport Expansion Worries

The correlation between air quality and airport expansion may reach new heights with the results of a new report centering on Chicago's O'Hare airport. Questions are being raised over the findings that identify increased cancer rates surrounding the airport and along its major flight paths.

Released March 21, the report finds overall cancer incidence in the airport study region to be 28 percent higher than the Illinois average. The study also points to cancer "hot-spots" along the flight paths branching out from O'Hare that record rates 33 to 50 percent higher than the overall local area and as much as double the state average. The study was conducted for the activist groups Alliance of Residents Concerning O'Hare.

The issue of airport-related air quality is growing tenser around the country as other large facilities are seeking to add runways, including Boston's Logan Airport and San Francisco International. Opponents of expansion have complained that the Federal Aviation Administration does not do enough to address the problem. The FAA is responsible for assuring that airport actions, e.g. ground traffic and equipment, conform to the State Implementation Plan.

Ultra-clean Fuels a Byproduct of Reduced Sulfur

A new process under development by the Pennsylvania State University could bolster industry efforts to meet the looming EPA requirements for extensive reductions in fuel sulfur. Researchers at Penn State say the byproduct of the process is also a benefit for fuel cell development.

The new process uses low temperatures and pressure to remove organic sulfur, a turnabout from traditional approaches which use high temperatures and hydrogen gas. The Penn State process does not use hydrogen or any other reactive gas. Researchers are hopeful that refineries can employ the process to produce the low sulfur fuels, and to generate the ultra-clean formulations required by fuel cells.

Existing regulations for diesel fuel allow 500 parts per million of sulfur--about 350 ppm sulfur for gasoline. By 2006, however, EPA's suite of engine and fuel regulations will limit sulfur content to 30 ppm in gasoline, and a drastic reduction to 15 ppm in diesel fuel.