Air Quality Contacts
For more information, please contact Victoria Martinez (787-771-2524).
Also available as Adobe PDF (439 KB)
These FAQs provide information on the transportation conformity and transportation planning implications as a result of implementation of the 2012 PM2.5 NAAQS and the revocation of the 1997 primary annual PM2.5 NAAQS. The FAQs are available on the FHWA Air Quality website here.
In an April 5, 2017 notice in the Federal Register, the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) withdrew its August 2016 “Final Guidance for Federal Departments and Agencies on Consideration of Greenhouse Gas Emissions and the Effects of Climate Change in National Environmental Policy Act Reviews,” which described how agencies should address climate change in NEPA reviews. The withdrawal is effective April 5, 2017.
In this webinar, FHWA staff will provide an overview of FHWA's ICE Tool, a spreadsheet-based model for estimating the energy and carbon dioxide emissions associated with the construction and maintenance of transportation facilities. The tool can be used for project-specific or planning-level analysis. The webinar will be recorded. Register for the webinar here.
Note: if you are an EXTERNAL user (those without a @dot.gov email address) and do not already have a DOT webinars login, you will have to request an account before you can register for the webinar. (See Step-by step instructions on how to request an account.) The account issuance takes approximately one business day. Once you receive your account information, you can access the site by clicking on the registration link and logging in.
This Quantitative Mobile Source Air Toxics (MSAT) for a Hypothetical Transportation Project is intended as a resource for project sponsors to better document methodologies and assumptions that are used when estimating MSAT emissions. The paper examines a hypothetical project involving widening of a 10-mile stretch of urban freeway. The project includes interchange ramps and segments of connecting arterials for six interchanges and an analysis of how the project affects roadway volumes and congested speeds. Emissions are compared between several alternatives and timeframes, and for different volumes of truck traffic. For additional information contact Victoria Martinez, victoria.martinez@dot.gov or 787-771-2524.
Rebuilding Resiliently in Louisiana highlights actions the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development took after major flooding to improve the resilience of damaged roadways.
This document replaces the 2010 version of the Basic Guide, which helps State and local officials understand transportation conformity and how conformity requirements relate to transportation investments in their communities. Specifically, the implications of conformity on metropolitan transportation plans, transportation improvement programs (TIPs), and transportation projects are discussed.
On May 12, 2107, president Trump signed into law S. 496 to repeal the US DOT’s rule on Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) Coordination and Planning Area Reform. The rule required MPOs within the same metropolitan planning area (MPA) to develop a single metropolitan transportation plan (MTP), a single transportation improvement program (TIP), and a jointly established set of performance targets for the MPA. The rule also clarified operating procedures and adopted certain coordination and decision-making requirements if more than one MPO serves an MPA.
Climate-resilient infrastructure: Getting the Policies Right is a working paper that highlights actions Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries can take to ensure new and existing infrastructure is resilient to climate changes. An annex to the paper describes MassDOT’s vulnerability and resilience assessment study of the Boston Central Artery/Tunnel System.
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 EPA’s Appendix W website.
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. The latest module, Alternative Fuels and Vehicles, was posted in May 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.
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 via the FHWA’s YouTube channel here. 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 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.
The U.S. EPA posted updated training materials and schedule for the MOVES2014a two-day hands-on training course. 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.
