Agenda - 05-05-2009 - Information Item

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16 Conformity Analysis and Determination Report 2035 Long Range Transportation Plans: • Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization, • Durham-Chapel Hill-Carrboro Metropolitan Planning Organization • Burlington-Graham Metropolitan Planning Organization FY 2009 - 2015 Transportation Improvement Programs o Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization ^ Durham-Chapel Hill-Carrboro Metropolitan Planning Organization ^ Burlington Graham Metropolitan Planning Organization Projects from the FY 2009-2015 State Transportation Improvement Program: • the portions of Chatham County, Franklin County, Granville County, Johnston County, Orange County and Person County that are within the Triangle Ozone Maintenance Area but Outside the Capital Area and Durham-Chapel Hill-Carrboro Metropolitan Planning Organization Areas 1. Introduction The Clean Air Act requires the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) to set limits on how much of a particulaz pollutant can be in the air anywhere in the United States. National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) are the pollutant limits set by the USEPA; they define the allowable concentration of pollution in the air for six different pollutants -Carbon Monoxide, Lead, Nitrogen Dioxide, Particulate Matter, Ozone, and Sulfur Dioxide. The Clean Air Act specifies how areas within the country are designated as either "attainment" or "non-attainment" of an air quality standazd, and authorizes USEPA to define the boundaries of non-attainment azeas. For areas designated as non-attainment for one or more NAAQS, the Clean Air Act defines a specific timetable to attain the standard and requires that non-attainment areas demonstrate reasonable and steady progress in reducing air pollution emissions until such time that an azea can demonstrate attainment. Each state must develop and submit a State Implementation Plan (SIP) that addresses. each pollutant for which it violates the NAAQS. Individual state air quality agencies aze responsible for defining the overall regional plan to reduce air. pollution emissions to levels that will enable attainment and maintenance of the NAAQS. This strategy is articulated through the SIP. In North Carolina, the agency responsible for SIP development is the North Cazolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Division of Air Quality (NC DENR/DAQ). The delineation and implementation of strategies to control emissions from on-road mobile sources is a significant element of the state plan to improve air quality, which links transportation and air quality planning activities within anon-attainment or maintenance area. The process of ensuring that a region's transportation planning activities contribute to attainment of the NAAQS, or "conform" to the purposes of the SIP, is referred to as transportation conformity. In order to receive federal transportation funds within anon-attainment or maintenance area, the area must demonstrate through a federally mandated conformity process that the transportation investments, strategies and programs, taken as a whole, contribute to the air quality goals defined in the state air quality plan. 8