______________________________________________________________________________

TRANSPORTATION CONFORMITY WORKING GROUP

of the

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF GOVERNMENTS

September 25, 2012

Minutes

__________________________________________ ____________________________________

3.1

- 1 TCWG Minutes September 25, 2012 THE FOLLOWING MINUTES ARE A SUMMARY OF THE MEETING OF THE

TRANSPORTATION CONFORMITY W ORKING GROUP. A DIGITAL RECORDING

OF THE ACTUAL MEETING IS AVAILABLE FOR LISTENING IN SCAG’S OFFICE.

The Meeting of the Transportation Conformity Working Group was held at the SCAG office in

Los Angeles.

In Attendance:

Abrisham i , Lori Metro

Brotcke, Kurt OCTA

Cooper, Keith ICF

Garber, Natalya Metro

Kulkarni, Anup OCTA

Nord, Greg OCTA

Sherwood, Arnie ITS /OCTA

Smolke, Brian OCTA

Young, Stephanie VCTC

SCAG

Au, An ita

Luo, Rongsheng

Via Teleconference:

Behtash , Arman Caltrans, District 12

Brady, Mike Caltrans Headquarters

Cacatian, Ben VCAPCD

Chang, Paul Caltrans, District 12

Chien, Kelly RBF Consulting

Crow, Jason ARB

Drummonds, Ey vonne SCAQMD

Ernie, Tim AECOM

Gallo, Ilene Caltrans, District 11

Goodson, Jeff AECOM

Malisos, Achilles RBF Consulting

O’Connor, Karina EPA, Region 9

Odufalu, Olufemi Caltrans, District 8

Tax, Wienke EPA, Region 9

Torres, Eddie RBF Consulting

Walecka, Carla TCA

Yoon, Andrew Caltrans, District 7______________________________________________________________________________

TRANSPORTATION CONFORMITY WORKING GROUP

of the

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF GOVERNMENTS

September 25, 2012

Minutes

__________________________________________ ____________________________________

3.1

- 2 TCWG Minutes September 25, 2012 1.0 CALL TO ORDER

Greg Nord, OCTA, called the meeting to order at 10:0 5 am

.

2.0 PUBLIC COMMENT PERIOD

There were no comments.

3.0 CONSENT CALENDAR

3.1 TCWG J uly 24 , 2012 Meeting Minutes

The minutes were approved vi a email after the meeting.

3.2 TCWG August 28 , 2012 Meeting Minutes

The minutes were approved via email after the meeting.

4.0 INFORMATION ITEMS

4.1 Review of PM Hot Spot Interagency Review Forms

1) LA0C8046

It was determined that this is n ot a POAQC

. (F WHA concurrence received via email after the meeting)

2) ORA 130061

It was determined that this is n ot a POAQC

. (FWHA concurrence received via email after the meeting)

3) RIV110122

The project sponsor will revise the hot spot review form to address TCWG

commen ts and will resubmit a revised hot spot review form

.

4) 2H0703 (SBD)

The project sponsor will revise the hot spot review form to address TCWG

comments and will resubmit a revised hot spot review form

.______________________________________________________________________________

TRANSPORTATION CONFORMITY WORKING GROUP

of the

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF GOVERNMENTS

September 25, 2012

Minutes

__________________________________________ ____________________________________

3.1

- 3 TCWG Minutes September 25, 2012 4.2 Review of PM Hot Spot Qualitative Analyses

1) LA0B951 ( r ev ised)

The analysis was deemed acceptable for NEPA circulation.

(FWHA and EPA concurrence received via email after the meeting)

2) ORA111801

The project sponsor will revise the qualitative analysis to address TCWG comments

and will resubmit a revised analy sis for review via email.

The revised qualitative analysis was deemed acceptable for NEPA circulation via

email on November 13, 2012.

4.3 TCM Substitution Request

Kurt Brotcke, OCTA

, presented a TCM substitution request to replace the purchase

of 7 1 buses for bus service expansion with ten regional traffic signal

synchronization projects throughout Orange County

.

In response to comments, Mr. Brotcke stated that OCTA would provide TCWG

with the necessary documentation, including emission analys e s o f all criteria

pollutants for further discussion at the next TCWG meeting.

4. 4 F TIP Update

Rongsheng Luo, SCAG

, reported the following on behalf of John Asuncion, SCAG:

 2013 FTIP had been approved by the SCAG Executive Administration

Committee on behalf of the Regional Council and submitted to funding

agencies for review. Federal approval of the 2013 FTIP was still anticipated to

be in mid

- December 2012

.

 Project submittal for t he last scheduled administrative modification to the 2011

FTIP was due to SCA G by October 2 nd , 2012.

4. 5 R TP Update

Rongsheng Luo , SCAG, reported the following on behalf of Ryan Kuo, SCAG :

 The six S ub committees formed by the Regional Council to guide the

implementation of the 2012

- 2035 RTP/SCS begin their meeting s this and next

m onth, with the first Goods Movement Subcommittee meeting taking place on

September 24

.______________________________________________________________________________

TRANSPORTATION CONFORMITY WORKING GROUP

of the

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF GOVERNMENTS

September 25, 2012

Minutes

__________________________________________ ____________________________________

3.1

- 4 TCWG Minutes September 25, 2012

 Tentative schedule for the 2012

- 2035 RTP/SCS Amendment #1 :

 Solicit RTP amendment requests from all six county transportation

commissions in November 2012

.  P erform a comp leteness review of amendment requests, cod e the regional

transportation demand model, and perform the conformity and the fiscal

constraint analyses between December 2012 and February 2013

.  R eleas e the Draft RTP Amendment for publ ic review and comment in

March 2013, bring the proposed final RTP Amendment to the CEOs’ AB

1246 Consultation Group for review and approval in April 2013, and adopt

the Amendment and submit it to the federal reviewing agencies for

conformity determination in May 2013

.

4. 6 EPA Update

Wienke Tax, EPA

, reported the following:

 Two F ederal R egister notices were published on September 19th, proposing

, respectively

, a call for a 1

- h our Ozone SIP and withdrawal of previous approval

of the VMT emissions offset demo nstration for the 1

- hour and 8

- hour Ozone

standards in the South Coast. The c omment period for the proposed actions

would end on October 19 th

.

 A lso released on August 30 th was G uidance on the VMT emissions offset

demonstration

.

 The comment period for the Settlement Agreement for the Imperial County

mediation ended last week

. T wo sets of comments were received concerning

the proposed rule changes.

In response to q uestion s

, Ms. Tax reported that Imperial County A ir Pollution

Control District held two workshops last Monday and Thursday regarding

Regulation VIII ; t he adoption public hearing was planned to be held on October

16 th ; t hese actions were on schedule as committed in the Settlement Agreement ;

EPA is committ ed to issuing a proposed rule on the revised dust regulations within

60 days after receiving the submittal; and the anticipated length of the highway

sanctions remains about four to six months

.

 A sanctions clock is running in South Coast because of the pa rtial disapproval

of PM 2.5 contingency measure s last November

. Unless approval is obtained

, stationary source o ffset sanctions would start in July 2013 and highways

sanctions would begin in December 2013

.______________________________________________________________________________

TRANSPORTATION CONFORMITY WORKING GROUP

of the

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF GOVERNMENTS

September 25, 2012

Minutes

__________________________________________ ____________________________________

3.1

- 5 TCWG Minutes September 25, 2012

In response to questions, Ms. T ax stated that EPA was in the process of reviewing a

PM2.5 SIP revision submittal but was not able to provide information about

outstanding issues or EPA action timelines . Ms. Tax confirmed that public

processes would be needed should SCAQMD be required t o correct any

discrepancies in the submittal and that EPA was aware of stakeholder concern for a

timely resolution

.

4. 7 ARB Update

Jason Crow, ARB, reported the following:

 ARB and SCAQMD s tarted working on developing new transportation

conformity budgets for the 24

- hour PM2.5 standard earlier this month

.

 ARB would meet with EPA and Caltrans next week to finalize the D raft PM

Hotspot Procedures for use with EMFAC 2011

.

In response to a question, Mr. Crow st ated that EPA approval of EMFAC 2011 is

anticipate d by December 31, 2012

. Karina O’Connor, EPA, confirmed that EPA

still hoped to meet the timeline and EPA would meet with FHWA as the next step.

4. 8 Air District s Update

Eyvonne Drummonds, SCAQMD, r eported the following:

 The 2012 AQMP Socio

- e conomic Report was anticipated to be released this

week for a 45

- day public review period

.

 New regional hearings were being s chedule d for mid

- November 2012

.

 SCAQMD Governing Board adoption of the 2012 AQMP is anticipate d in

December 2012

.

In response to question s

, Ms. Drummonds confirmed that the 2012 AQMP would

be adopted by the AQMD Governing Board and then submitted to ARB in

December 2012 and that t he VMT emissions offset demonstration was expected to

be released soon

.

5.0 INFORMATION SHARING

In response to a question, Mr. Jason Crow, ARB, confirmed that ARB had started the

process to develop new 8

– hour ozone transportation conformity budgets for Mojave Desert

Air Basin ( MDAB ) and Coachella Valley.______________________________________________________________________________

TRANSPORTATION CONFORMITY WORKING GROUP

of the

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF GOVERNMENTS

September 25, 2012

Minutes

__________________________________________ ____________________________________

3.1

- 6 TCWG Minutes September 25, 2012 In response to a question, Ms. Wienke Tax, EPA, confirmed that the VMT emissions offset

requirement apply to extreme as well as severe ozone nonattainment areas; the EPA

Guidance on VMT emissions offset covers both areas.

In response to a request, Mr. Rongsheng Luo, SCAG, confirmed that updates on the

Imperial County Highway Sanctions, the South Coast Sanctions clock, the EMFAC2011

approval, and the new 8

- hour ozone transportation conformity budgets for WDAB and

Coachella Valley will be standing items on future TCWG agendas.

In response to a question, Mi ke Brady, Caltrans Headquarters, confirmed that t he next

Statewide Conformity Working Group Meeting would be held on October 16, 2012 from 9

am to 12 pm

. Mr. Brady requested that any agenda items from TCWG members be sent to

him as soon as possible.

6.0 ADJOURNMENT

The meeting was adjourned at 1 1 : 17 am

.

The next Transportation Conformity Working Group meeting will be held on Tuesday

Octobe r 2 3

, 2012 at t he SCAG office in downtown Los Angeles.