Commonwealth of Pennsylvania

Department of Environmental Protection

FINAL

State Implementation Plan Revision: Motor Vehicle Sub-area Emissions
Budgets 

Scranton/Wilkes-Barre

Eight-Hour Ozone Maintenance Area

April 2008

Bureau of Air Quality

Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection

P.O. Box 8468

Harrisburg, PA 17105-8468

717-787-9495

www.depweb.state.pa.us

Blank page for copying purposes

INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW

Section 176 of the federal Clean Air Act (CAA) provides a mechanism by
which federally funded or approved highway and transit plans, programs,
and projects are determined not to produce new air quality violations,
worsen existing violations, or delay timely attainment of national air
quality standards.  Regulations of the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA), issued to implement transportation conformity, provide
that motor vehicle emission “budgets” establish caps of these
emissions that cannot be exceeded by the predicted transportation system
emissions in the future (40 CFR Part 93).  Transportation agencies in
Pennsylvania are responsible for making timely transportation conformity
determinations.

  

On November 19, 2007, the U.S. EPA approved a State Implementation Plan
(SIP) revision submitted by the Department on June 12, 2007 for the
Scranton / Wilkes-Barre 8-hour ozone nonattainment area. This area is
composed of Lackawanna, Luzerne, Monroe, and Wyoming counties. The
Department’s revision included the following:

A request that the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre ozone nonattainment area be
redesignated as attainment for the 8-hour ozone ambient air quality
standard (NAAQS),

A 2002 base year inventory for the area, and

A maintenance plan for the area that provides for continued attainment
of the 8-hour ozone NAAQS for at least 10 years after redesignation.

The maintenance plan portion of the SIP revision also established motor
vehicle emissions budgets (MVEBs), for purposes of transportation
conformity, for the entire four county area. EPA’s November 19, 2007
SIP revision approval determined these budgets to be adequate.

Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) and the Pennsylvania
Department of Transportation (PennDOT), in conjunction with state Rural
Planning Organizations (RPOs), share transportation conformity
determination responsibility across the Commonwealth. The Scranton /
Wilkes-Barre area contains one MPO with conformity responsibility over
two of the four counties (Lackawanna and Luzerne), while two RPOs and
PennDOT share responsibility for Monroe and Wyoming counties. Table 1
lists the MPO or RPO name and the counties included in that agency’s
responsibility. 

Table 1

Scranton / Wilkes-Barre Area MPO/RPO County Coverage

MPO/RPO 	County

Lackawanna – Luzerne Transportation Study MPO	Lackawanna, Luzerne

Northeastern Pennsylvania Alliance RPO 	Monroe

Northern Tier Regional Planning and Development Commission RPO 	Wyoming



The Department’s June 12, 2007 SIP revision established MVEBs for the
four counties as a whole. Given the multi-jurisdictional nature of the
area, PennDOT has requested separate budgets to allow the planning
organizations to move their transportation conformity determinations
through the approval processes separately. This SIP revision will
establish three sub-area budgets for the Scranton / Wilkes-Barre area
corresponding to the MPO/RPO structure of the area.  The total of the
three sub-area budgets is the same as the EPA-approved MVEB for the four
counties as a whole. 

 

Section 93.124(d) of the transportation conformity regulations (40 CFR
§ 93.124(d)) allow a SIP to establish motor vehicle budgets for each
MPO if a nonattainment area includes more than one MPO. Furthermore,
recognizing the complexity of areas with multi-MPO jurisdictions, the
U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highways Administration (FHWA)
allows States to develop separate sub-area transportation conformity
budgets for each MPO or some other subset of the area (such as by
county). For the Scranton / Wilkes-Barre area, PennDOT performs the
emissions modeling and analysis required for transportation conformity
determinations for the RPO’s, and works closely with MPOs to prepare
conformity determinations. All transportation conformity processes in
the Commonwealth are coordinated through a robust interagency
consultation process, of which the Department, PennDOT, U.S. EPA, FHWA
and the MPO are members. 

When a SIP establishes separate transportation conformity budgets for
individual MPOs and RPOs, all of the MPOs and RPOs in that nonattainment
or maintenance area must be in conformity in order for any MPO or RPO
within that State's portion of the nonattainment or maintenance area to
make a conformity determination. In other words, if conformity lapses
for one MPO or RPO with a separate sub-area budget, the other MPOs and
RPOs within that State's portion of the nonattainment or maintenance
area will not lapse immediately, but they will be unable to make new
conformity determinations until the first MPO once again determines
conformity.  Separating budgets in this SIP revision will allow
conformity to be determined separately.  Increases in emissions in one
sub-area cannot be offset by decreases in emissions in another sub-area.
  

Requirements for a public comment process are set forth in Section
110(a)(2) of the CAA and 40 CFR Section 51.102(d).  A public hearing on
the proposed revised MVEBs was scheduled for Wednesday, April 2, 2008. 
No requests for a public hearing were received so the public hearing was
cancelled.  Notice of the hearing was published in the Pennsylvania
Bulletin at least 30 days prior to the date of the hearing.  



MOTOR VEHICLE SUB-AREA EMISSIONS BUDGETS

     

Once approved by EPA, this SIP revision will establish sub-area budgets
for highway emissions in order to ensure that transportation emissions
do not impede clean air goals in the next decade and beyond.  The
information in Table 2, once EPA approves this SIP revision for purposes
of conformity, will establish transportation conformity sub-area MVEBs
for the Scranton / Wilkes-Barre Area. 

Table 2-1

Lackawanna – Luzerne Transportation Study MPO 

(Lackawanna & Luzerne Counties)

Motor Vehicle Emission Budgets in Tons/Summer Day (tons per day)

 

 	2009	2018

	VOC	NOx	VOC	NOx

PREDICTED	tpd	16.63	33.83	9.84	15.35







	MARGIN	tpd	1.36	0.76	1.96	1.34







	BUDGET	tpd	17.99	34.58	11.80	16.70



Table 2-2

Northeastern Pennsylvania Alliance RPO 

(Monroe County)

 Motor Vehicle Emission Budgets in Tons/Summer Day (tons per day)

	2009	2018

	VOC	NOx	VOC	NOx

PREDICTED	tpd	5.73	11.60	3.99	5.66







	MARGIN	tpd	0.46	0.57	0.65	0.70







	BUDGET	tpd	6.19	12.16	4.64	6.36





Table 2-3

Northern Tier Regional Planning and Development Commission RPO (Lebanon
County)

 Motor Vehicle Emission Budgets in Tons/Summer Day

	2009	2018

	VOC	NOx	VOC	NOx

PREDICTED	tpd	0.97	1.50	0.51	0.64







	MARGIN	tpd	0.03	0.04	0.03	0.04







	BUDGET	tpd	0.99	1.54	0.54	0.68



Note: Tons per day are informational only.  Differences occur due to
rounding.

 U.S. DOT, Federal Highways Administration,  “Transportation
Conformity in Complex Areas”
http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/conformity/complex/group2.htm

 

Kathleen A. McGinty

Secretary

Edward G. Rendell

Governor

