Transportation Conformity and the MPO
Transportation Conformity means that transportation activities will not cause new air quality violations, worsen existing violations, or delay timely attainment of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards. Transportation Conformity applies to both short-range and long-range transportation plans.
Transportation conformity requirements ensure that federal funds go to transportation activities that are consistent with an area's air quality goals.
The Clean Air Act requires a general plan to attain air quality standards in all areas of the country and a specific plan for each nonattainment area, which is usually a major metropolitan area along with several outlying counties.
Each state is responsible for developing and submitting “plans” to demonstrate how standards will be achieved, maintained, and enforced. In our state these “plans” are developed by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) and are referred to as State Implementation Plans (SIPs).
These SIPs show allowable levels of pollutants as allowed by the NAAQS.
A conformity determination estimates emissions that will result from an area's transportation system through Travel Demand Modeling and demonstrates that those emissions are within the limits outlined in the state's air quality implementation SIP.
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