Air Quality Contacts
For more information, please contact Victoria Martinez (787-771-2524).
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On Tuesday, March 28, the President signed Executive Order 13783, Promoting Energy Independence and Economic Growth. The purpose of the Order is to lift federal restrictions and regulations that could burden energy production and constrain economic growth. The Order specifically addresses some regulations and policies of the Environmental Protection Agency and Departments of Energy and Interior. However, the Order also rescinds the national guidance issued by the President's Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) on Consideration of Greenhouse Gas Emissions and the Effects of Climate Change in NEPA Reviews. It also requires each Federal Agency to review all Agency actions that potentially burden the development of energy resources, and provide the results of this review to the Office of Management and Budget. FHWA is reviewing the Executive Order to determine its implications for our programs, and to identify ways that we can further support its goals.
FHWA published a Q&A document on rebuilding more resiliently under the emergency relief program. The Q&A clarifies that FHWA emergency relief funds may be used to rebuild damaged highways to be more resilient to future extreme weather events if cost effective or consistent with current design standards. The document also discusses building protective features by supplementing with other funds even when rebuilding more resiliently will not likely save money for the E.R. program. It includes three examples of projects that were built more resiliently following disaster.
A new FHWA handout, Resilience in Transportation Planning, provides an overview of provisions related to incorporating resilience into the transportation planning process, as required by the FAST Act and incorporated into the May 2016 final Planning Rule. The provisions include: a new planning factor on improving the resiliency and reliability of the transportation system; a recommendation for MPOs to consult with agencies and officials responsible for natural disaster risk reduction during development of transportation plans and programs; and a requirement that metropolitan transportation plans assess strategies that reduce the vulnerability of the existing transportation infrastructure to natural disaster. The handout also provides examples of how transportation agencies have integrated resilience throughout the planning process.
A new FHWA report summarizes a peer exchange on climate change resilience that was held October 4-5, 2016 in Atlanta, Georgia and hosted by the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC). The peer exchange was co-organized by FHWA and ARC and involved MPOs and State DOTs from around the country.
FHWA published seven facility-level climate change vulnerability assessments on a diverse set of transportation assets around the country. The assessments include engineering and economic analysis of potential adaptation options. The assessments follow FHWA's Adaptation Decision-Making Assessment Process (ADAP) and are part of the larger Transportation Engineering Approaches to Climate Resiliency (TEACR) Study.
FHWA held three webinars to provide an overview of Hydraulic Engineering Circular 17: Highways in the River Environment- Floodplains, Extreme Events, Risk and Resilience (HEC-17). Recordings and presentation slides are available on FHWA's Bridges & Structures Videos & Webinars page.
Planning is underway for the 16th TRB National Transportation Planning Applications Conference. It will be held in Raleigh, North Carolina, on May 14-18, 2017, at the Sheraton Hotel, Downtown Raleigh. The conference focuses on providing opportunities to showcase new transportation planning techniques and methods emphasizing practical, innovative, and timely technical and policy approaches to transportation planning. Presentations, workshops, discussion sessions, and tutorials are all expected to be a part of the 2017 program, continuing the focus on practical, innovative, and timely techniques for solving planning problems.
The Transportation Research Board is co-sponsoring the 2017 International Conference on Ecology and Transportation on May 14-18, 2017, in Salt Lake City, Utah. The conference is designed to explore the broad range of ecological issues related to transportation systems in the areas of development, policy, and administration as a means to help enhance project development processes and the ecological sustainability of transportation systems.
The 2017 Southern Transportation and Air Quality Summit (STAQS) will be held at the North Central Texas Council of Governments (NCTCOG) in Arlington, Texas on August 29-30, 2017. Registration information and conference details will be made available soon.
On December 20, 2016, the U.S. EPA signed a final rule that revises the Guideline on Air Quality Models. The Guideline provides EPA-recommended models and other techniques, as well as guidance for their use, for predicting ambient concentrations of air pollutants. The U.S. EPA is finalizing replacement of CALINE3 with AERMOD as the preferred Appendix A model for refined mobile source applications including fine particle pollution (PM2.5, PM10) and carbon monoxide (CO) hot-spot analyses. The transition period for the use of AERMOD for these refined modeling applications was extended to 3 years and the use of CAL3QHC for CO screening analyses was retained. The effective date is May 22, 2017. For more information, including a copy of the final rule, a fact sheet, a Technical Support Document (TSD), and EPA contact information, see https://www3.epa.gov/ttn/scram/appendix_w-2016.htm.
The U.S. EPA posted an update to MOVES2014a in November 2016. The update fixes issues with the MOVES Fuel Wizard and updates emission rates for dioxins and furans. The effects of these adjustments on emissions are small, but the U.S. EPA recommends that MOVES users who plan to use the Fuel Wizard install and use the update to MOVES2014a for all future work. In addition, emission rates for dioxins and furans from on-road and non-road vehicles are now reported in absolute mass, rather than in terms of toxic equivalency.
The FHWA Office of Natural Environment has developed a series of tools to provide technical support and resources for the implementation of the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement (CMAQ) Program. CMAQ project justifications, as well as annual reporting, require the development of reliable air quality benefit estimates. This CMAQ Emission Reductions Calculator is offered only as an additional resource to assist DOTs, MPOs, and project sponsors in the project justification process. Agencies and individuals using an existing methodology to generate emissions benefit information are welcome to continue their current practice. The first module, focused on traffic flow improvements, is available on the FHWA CMAQ Emissions Calculator Toolkit webpage and was updated in December 2016. The second module, Advanced Diesel Truck/Engine Technologies, was posted in January 2017. For more information, please contact Mark Glaze at Mark.Glaze@dot.gov or (202) 366-4053.
The U.S. EPA's Federal Advisory Committee Act MOVES Model Review Work Group continues to provide input on the development of the next official version of MOVES, expected to be released in 2018 at the earliest. Presentations and meeting summaries are available on the Work Group website: https://www.epa.gov/moves/federal-advisory-committee-act-faca-moves-model-review-work-group.
In October 2016, the U.S. EPA published guidance on revocation of the 1997 NAAQS for PM2.5. The guidance describes how the revocation of the 1997 primary annual PM2.5 NAAQS will be implemented and when transportation conformity stops applying for this NAAQS. It fulfills a commitment the EPA made in November 2015 to provide additional information once the EPA finalized the PM2.5 state implementation plan (SIP) requirements rule. An FHWA FAQ on revocation of the standard will be forthcoming. The U.S. EPA guidance is available at https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2016-10/documents/420b16072.pdf.
The NTI's Introduction to Transportation Conformity course is scheduled for March 28-30, 2017, in Salt Lake City, and May 1-3 in Houston. The 2.5-day course will present basic information about transportation conformity requirements and the relationship of the transportation and air quality planning processes. Registration can be made via NTI's website.
FHWA NEPA Air Quality Analysis for Highway Projects
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 appropriate for managers, practitioners, and modelers, which address guidance and current practice for assessing air pollutant impacts from highways; the general approach for using the EPA's MOVES model in highway air quality analysis; and the general approach for using the EPA's dispersion models in highway air quality analysis. The training also includes hands-on sessions intended for modelers, which focus on the data needs for conducting highway air quality analyses; using MOVES for project-level mobile source air toxics (MSAT) and energy analysis; using MOVES to develop emission rates for dispersion modeling; and using AERMOD and the CAL3 series of dispersion models for highway project analysis. Please note that the training covers specialized project-level applications of MOVES, and is not a more general MOVES training course. It does not address using MOVES for 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.
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 at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKXcs0WtNHA&feature=youtu.be. For more information about the CMAQ program, please contact Mark Glaze at mark.glaze@dot.gov or (202) 366-4053.
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 http://www.nhi.fhwa.dot.gov/ 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.
The U.S. EPA posted updated training materials and schedule for the MOVES2014a two-day hands-on training course at https://www.epa.gov/moves/moves-training-sessions. On the same webpage, the U.S. EPA also posted an abbreviated version of the MOVES2014a course materials used as a one-day training course. MOVES users who did not attend a previous hands-on training session can use the "MOVES2014 Training Materials" as a self-taught course.
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 Paul Heishman at Paul.Heishman@dot.gov.
FHWA's Resource Center Air Quality Technical Services Team is available to offer MOVES training, and information is available at the Resource Center website.
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.
