CMAQ Conformity Poses Interagency Challenge -- California Capitol Hill Bulletin -- Volume 10, Bulletin 6 -- March 13, 2003

Bush Administration transportation and environmental officials discussed progress in air quality enhancement under the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement Program (CMAQ) before the Senate Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Clean Air, Public Works, and Nuclear Safety. Subcommittee Chair Vonovich (OK) in his opening statement at the March 13 hearing expressed interest in improving interagency conformity requirement synchronization while enabling greater flexibility for regional planning organizations as ways of improving the CMAQ program.

CMAQ, now a $14 billion federal apportionment program in effect since passage of the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA 1991) aims to improve congestion and air quality through clean technology upgrades and relevant congestion relief projects to assist states suffering from traffic congestion and high concentrations of ambient air toxins such as ozone, particulate matter and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) to provide emissions reductions. Money is apportioned to states through a statutory formula based on severity of air quality in nonattainment zones and population concentrations. California benefits significantly from the formula structure receiving 21.3 percent of the CMAQ apportionment in 2002. According to the Department of Transportation (DOT), motor vehicle emissions have declined dramatically thanks in part to improved federal air quality standards. For instance, Carbon Monoxide declined by 45 percent from 1970 to 2000 while PM-10 and VOC emissions from motor vehicles dropped 38 percent and 61 percent respectively over the same time period.

Panelists from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the DOT reported on the challenge of adjusting to emerging air quality standards and new data. Once implemented, new, more stringent EPA standards stand to increase the number of nonattainment counties in the country from 196 to 291; furthermore, developments in health research are leading to other inconsistencies in interagency conformity. Jeffrey Holmstead of the EPA recommended amending the CMAQ formula so it accounts for and responds to concentrations of pollutants currently not considered (e.g. fine particulate matter (PM -2.5). Emil Frankel of the DOT expressed his agency's willingness to improve coordination efforts to meet both transportation and environmental priorities and to assist local areas with the implementation of new EPA standards. He commented that "there have been major improvements in air quality, and the CMAQ program has been a major part of that."

However, Of the major federal highway programs, CMAQ is the only one where California is not a donor state to a significant degree. For more information, see the recent California Institute - PPIC report on highway programs at http://www.ppic.org/main/publication.asp?i=172 .

For more information on this hearing please visit the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee website at: http://www.senate.gov/~epw/ .

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