Title
Triangle Air Quality Conformity (10 minutes)
John Hodges-Copple, TJCOG
Narrative
This agenda item will briefly cover five issues:
1. The completion of air quality conformity for the amended 2040 MTP and 2016-2025 TIP
2. The termination of air quality conformity requirements in the Triangle
3. The new federal ozone standard
4. Air quality treatment in future plans
5. Air quality monitoring stations
Federal agencies recently accepted the air quality conformity for the amended 2040 Metropolitan Transportation Plan (MTP) and FY2016-2025 Transportation Improvement Program (TIP). The 20-year maintenance requirement for carbon monoxide (CO) in Wake and Durham counties ended as of September 18, 2015. The Triangle Area is now in attainment for all the National Ambient Air Quality Standards including CO and Ozone (O3). As a result, Metropolitan Transportation Plans (MTPs) and Transportation Improvement Programs (TIPs) will no longer need to demonstrate conformity with Air Quality (AQ) standards. In addition, the MTP can be updated on a five-year schedule rather than a four-year schedule, if desired. Practically, the two MPOs plan to continue to use the existing four-year schedule to match TIP cycles and account for rapid growth and change. There is a new, more strict federal ozone standard that reduces the threshold from 70ppm (parts per million) to 65ppm, however the Triangle area is not expected to fail this new standard in the near future.
Recommendation
TC Action: Received Air Quality presentation.
Board Action: Receive Air Quality presentation and provide comments, if desired.