The year 2003 promises to be an important year for planning to attain both state and national 1-hour ground-level ozone standards. The 2000 Clean Air Plan (CAP) to attain the state 1-hour ozone standard is due for its three-year update. The CAP is prepared under the California Clean Air Act of 1988 to meet the state ozone standard of 9 parts per hundred million (pphm).
The 2001 Ozone Attainment Plan (OAP) to meet the national 1-hour ozone standard contains the commitment to conduct a mid-course review in 2003 and submit an amendment, the Ozone Attainment Strategy, by early 2004. The OAP is required by the federal Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 to attain the less stringent national 1-hour ozone standard of 12 pphm. After adoption of the OAP by the regional air quality planning agencies and approval by the state Air Resources Board (ARB), it is submitted to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Upon EPA approval, it becomes part of California's State Implementation Plan (SIP).
The three regional agencies charged with preparing the OAP are the Bay Area Air Quality Management District (Air District), the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC), and the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG), who are coordinating activities through the Regional Agency Coordinating Committee (see What Is RACC?). The Air District and MTC are completing the review of a number of the Further Study Measures (FSMs) contained in the 2001 OAP (see FSMs below). In addition, the agencies have hired consultants to conduct complex ozone modeling to provide a sound technical basis for the ozone reduction strategy. The agencies have also begun the public involvement process for this round of ozone planning.
The three agencies are urging individuals and groups to become involved in the planning process. In January, a public notice requesting suggestions for ozone control measures and strategies, and ways to increase public involvement in the process, was issued. While suggestions will be received at any time, the earlier they are received, the better.
An advisory group, the Ozone Working Group, is being formed to discuss and provide input to the planning process. Anyone interested in the ozone planning process for the Bay Area is encouraged to participate in the Ozone Working Group meetings. The first meeting will be held on Thursday, March 27 from 10 am to 12 noon, at the Metro Center Auditorium, 101 Eighth Street, Oakland 94607. Subsequent meetings are expected to be held bimonthly, in May, July, September, and November of 2003, and January of 2004.
A public hearing on the 2004 Ozone Attainment Strategy and the CAP is anticipated in February 2004, with the regional agencies adopting the Ozone Attainment Strategy and CAP in March and submittal of the documents to ARB in April 2004.
Adelia Sabiston
The four FSMs for stationary sources being investigated by the Air District, along with ARB and EPA, are:
The transportation-related FSMs being studied by MTC are:
In addition to the above FSMs, MTC and the Air District have been considering episodic measures to be applied on Spare the Air days, when there is a high probability that ozone standards will be exceeded. Besides FSM 3, programs being considered include incentives for owners of older cars not to drive on Spare the Air days, and for employers who allow employees to telecommute or who offer employees free transit passes on Spare the Air days.
Adelia Sabiston
For More Information:
Suggestions for strategies to reduce emissions that contribute to the formation of ozone (reactive organic gases and oxides of nitrogen) should be submitted to Jean Roggenkamp, BAAQMD, 939 Ellis Street, San Francisco CA 94109, or e-mailed to jroggenkamp@baaqmd.gov, or faxed to (415) 749-4741.
For information on the Ozone Working Group, contact Henry Hilken at (415) 749-4642 or by e-mail at hhilken@baaqmd.gov.
For updated information on the Bay Area ozone planning process, check the Air District website at http://www.baaqmd.gov/planning/2004sip/2004sip.htm
Public input for the 2005 Regional Transportation Plan (RTP) will begin with a transportation summit on June 14, 2003. The RTP must be updated every three years by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC). New issues for the 2005 update include goods movement, mobility for older adults, safety and security measures, and integration with the update of the Ozone Attainment Strategy and State Implementation Plan for air quality (see Strategy for Ozone Reduction). Lifeline Transit and performance measures for new transportation projects, which were introduced in the last RTP, will become more substantial in the new plan.
The June transportation summit will be followed by Fall 2003 workshops to be held jointly by MTC, its Advisory Council and other advisory committees, and the Partnership Board, which includes transit agencies and congestion management agencies. The focus will be on determining the appropriate distribution of transportation funds that will be distributed by MTC in its role as the metropolitan planning organization for the nine-county Bay Area. In December 2003, MTC will adopt a plan for allocating these funds between regional needs and local needs, setting the stage for a second round of workshops, to be conducted on regional issues by MTC, and on local issues and proposed projects by the congestion management agencies.
A draft of the 2005 RTP and an Environmental Impact Report will be available by September 2004. Following a third round of public input, the plan is scheduled for approval by MTC in January 2005.
For more information: Ellen Griffin, MTC, 510-464-7854; egriffin@mtc.ca.gov
For a copy of the 2001 Regional Transportation Plan, which includes an attractive wall map, contact the MTC library, 510-464-7836, library@mtc.ca.gov
The Regional Agency Coordinating Committee (RACC) was established in Spring 2002 by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC), the Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD) and the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG). The three agencies are co-lead agencies for preparing federal air quality plans and are responsible for adopting and revising the Bay Area portion of the State Implementation Plan for nonattainment pollutants, such as ozone. The committee is a successor to an earlier joint committee, the Joint Air Quality Planning Committee, which expired in 1996.
The agencies agreed to form the committee "to work in collaboration on areas of mutual concern and shared jurisdiction", with emphasis on the updating of the Ozone Attainment Plan (see Strategy for Ozone Reduction). All three agencies were also participants in the regional Smart Growth planning process, and RACC recently assumed the responsibility for working on follow-up activities to that process. To perform this role, RACC will have two linked meetings, one addressing air quality planning and the second, with expanded committee membership (other regional agencies and interest groups which previously participated in the Smart Growth Steering Committee), addressing smart growth and various incentive programs.
Meetings are currently held bimonthly on the third Friday of the month, usually at the MetroCenter. Agendas are available on the MTC Website, http://www.mtc.ca.gov
For more information, contact Chris Brittle, MTC, 510-464-7831; cbrittle@mtc.ca.gov.
The Bay Area's Smart Growth Strategy and Regional Livability Footprint Project is now moving into its final stages, as regional agency boards and commissions are being asked to endorse the plans and proposals which have emerged from the process begun over two years ago (see August/September 2001 issue). The five regional agencies which collaborated on the project were the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG), the Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD), the Bay Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC), the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) and the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board (RWQCB).
The Smart Growth Strategy planning process was integrated with the Regional Livability Footprint Project developed by the Bay Area Alliance for Sustainable Communities, a coalition of groups and agencies established in 1997 to develop and implement a sustainability plan for the Bay Area. Its Steering Committee included ABAG, the Bay Area Council, Sierra Club, Urban Habitat, and PG&E, representing stakeholders from the "3 E's" Economy, Environment, and (social) Equity.
Regional growth statistics based on smart growth principles, and the update of the regional transportation plan, will be the first products of the new approach. Agencies and local governments have been evaluating new forecasts of future growth developed by ABAG, titled Projections `03. These forecasts are based on the results of regional workshops and incorporate incentives for smart growth, taking into account development trends and patterns that ABAG considers realistic for the region.
Projections `03 predictions on housing units diverge from previous forecasts in 2010, with additional housing units resulting from new smart growth policies predicted in the region. Over 25 years this could result in 90,000 more units, an increase of about 18% over the number predicted with current growth patterns. Based on the increase in housing within the region, commuting from outside the region is predicted to grow more slowly, at about 35% over the 25-year period compared to a rate of almost 90% if current trends continue.
After review and comment by local jurisdictions, congestion management agencies, the Bay Area Alliance for Sustainable Communities and other interested groups, ABAG adopted the final forecasts in March 2003. The projections will be updated every two years, and adjustments will be made to reflect the extent to which the smart growth vision is actually being realized through incentives, regulatory changes, and regional and local planning activities.
MTC will use the forecasts for transportation planning and modeling for the 2005 revision of the Regional Transportation Plan (RTP) and other projects. A recent MTC memo notes that the 2005 RTP "will need to consider policies, incentives and regulatory changes that would be needed to support smart growth". The RTP will also need to be coordinated with air quality planning, including the Ozone Attainment Strategy (see Strategy for Ozone Reduction) . By incorporating the Smart Growth Strategy results, both land use and air quality planning can be integrated with transportation planning in the RTP, moving toward a regional plan which incorporates smart growth.
Acknowledging the need for regional agency coordination to implement the Smart Growth vision, MTC commissioners who participated in the Smart Growth Strategy Steering Committee have transferred oversight of the Smart Growth work to the Regional Agencies Coordinating Committee (RACC) which already includes three of the five regional agencies (see What Is RACC?). At their February meeting, RACC members established a process to incorporate the Steering Committee members, including BCDC, RWQCB, and Bay Area Alliance representatives, as participants in the Smart Growth segment of RACC meetings.
To guide the implementation of the Smart Growth vision, agencies have been asked to endorse the Smart Growth Preamble and Policies. This document was developed by the five regional agencies together with the Bay Area Alliance for Sustainable Communities. The policies emerged from issues raised by participants in the regional workshops, and are intended to address housing, development, open space preservation, environmental protection, infrastructure, mobility choices, cooperation among jurisdictions, economic vitality, and social equity. They are "consistent with widely accepted notions of smart growth", according to the Preamble, and "provide a framework for decision- making".
The Bay Area Alliance developed a Draft Compact for Sustainable Development which is a counterpart to the Smart Growth Preamble and Policies. It identified ten regional challenges together with strategies for improvement: economy, housing, transportation, natural resources, energy efficiency and pollution reduction, neighborhood revitalization, education, health and safety, governmental fiscal reform, and civic engagement. The final version, titled Compact for a Sustainable Bay Area, will guide Bay Area Alliance action to implement sustainability policies in the region over the next few years.
Progress toward sustainability and smart growth will be measurable through changes in the ABAG Projections, and through comparison with benchmarks contained in a "quality of life report card" created for the United Way by the Bay Area Alliance and the Northern California Council for the Community. The report card is arranged to complement the Compact for a Sustainable Bay Area, and measures indicators such as housing supply and affordability, per capita water consumption, household income, school spending, arrest rates and commute times.
Even after all the endorsements, the Compact and the Preamble and Policies could sit on a shelf and the Report Card could merely become a reminder of where the region has been, unless participants successfully shift into implementation of the plans and policies. It will be important to focus on the RACC, where the agencies and the Bay Area Alliance will continue to meet to guide agency action, and to watch the progress of regional plans, such as the RTP, before declaring the birth of a true regional planning process.
Leslie Stewart
For more information:
Alex Amoroso, ABAG, 510-464-7900; alexa@abag.ca.gov
Valerie Knepper, MTC, 510-464-7821; vknepper@mtc.ca.gov
Bay Area Alliance for Sustainable Communities, 510-464-7978; infoBAA@BayAreaAlliance.org
Water quality and availability are key to how land is developed and used. Until recently, however, water has often been a minor consideration in local land use decisions. It was assumed that if new development was proposed in an area outside existing water and sewer districts, an annexation would be approved by the Local Agency Formation Commission, and the necessary pipes and other facilities would be available. With population growth straining water supplies, particularly in dry years, and wastewater and stormwater from existing development impacting water quality in the region, new consideration is being given to the interface between water and land use.
Exploring the interrelationships between land use and water reveals complex linkages that make it difficult to know where to begin. New development involves finding water to be used both for landscaping and for domestic use, creating wastewater which must then be treated to protect water quality at the discharge point. Landscaping and impervious surfaces created by development result in urban runoff, which is a concern for water quality in streams and in San Francisco Bay. However, new development also provides opportunities to install water-saving devices and to design landscaping and facilities which will catch and clean stormwater runoff, decreasing the impacts to the region.
Changing development patterns offer other potential water-related benefits. A CALFED study on water reliability and supply, which includes several Bay Area water agencies, will assess implications of smart growth projections (see Smart Growth: Making It Real) for future water demand in the region.
The Santa Clara Valley Water District compared a smart growth scenario created by workshop participants in the regional smart growth planning process with the forecast for projected water use based on current development patterns, and found that the smart growth scenario resulted in reduced water use. The scenario replaced some industrial uses, often heavy water users, with multi-family and small lot residences, which use less water than traditional suburban development.
Other districts have also seen that higher density can be positive for water supply. According to Tam Hege, League of Women Voters representative on the East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD) Demand Management Advisory Committee, the committee learned that lower water use by district residents living west of the East Bay hills is due not only to climate, but also to the prevalence of smaller homes on lots smaller than the average east of the hills. However, multi-family units may not be as conservation-conscious; the committee's October 2002 report recommended individual metering for each unit, to make residents more aware of their water use.
EBMUD conservation studies show that household measures, such as low-flow toilet replacement and more efficient clothes washers, are close to maximum effectiveness in the district's service area. The next major conservation target is landscaping, particularly changes in irrigation techniques, such as watering devices with climate sensors to tailor water use to actual need. Future development approvals could require this type of system as a water conservation measure. Large industrial complexes, which are often required to install landscaping as an amenity, are also likely candidates for these systems.
Use of reclaimed water is another option for reducing the impact of landscaping needs on the water supply. Reclaimed water use is growing steadily in the region, with EBMUD projecting an increase in use by 2020 to 14 million gallons per day (mgd) from the current 6 mgd. So far reclaimed water has been used primarily for large landscaped areas such as parks, golf courses and schools, as well as industrial uses. A few new developments have dual piping to carry both reclaimed and potable water, installed either voluntarily or as conditions of development approval.
If handled carelessly, water from yards, parking lots and driveways can affect runoff into waterways and the Bay. Termed stormwater, this is the largest single source of urban water pollution To cope with this, new regulations are going into effect in several Bay Area counties, as the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board enforces the next phase of a federal law requiring treatment of stormwater. Under the law, runoff from many types of development must be filtered through landscaped basins or swales, or captured in tanks, allowing removal of sediment and surface pollutants before the water is discharged. Santa Clara County has been implementing the new rules for the past year; recent permit renewals and modifications also require their implementation by Alameda, Contra Costa and San Mateo Counties and their cities.
Local officials now have many points in their decision-making process where water supply and quality need to be considered. In addition to the stormwater pollution rules, a recent state law (SB 221 Kuehl) requires that any development over 500 units must certify that water can be supplied to the development when it is completed. Water conservation, reclamation, and other techniques to improve sustainability must also play their role in fully integrating responsible water management into the region's land use planning.
Leslie Stewart
New thinking on "Water and Land Use" will be the topic of the Association of Bay Area Governments Spring Assembly on April 24, 2003.
The conference is cosponsored by the Bay Area Water Agencies Coalition.
For more information, see the ABAG Website, http://www.abag.ca.gov.
Building a bridge is a long, complex and expensive undertaking. With construction now underway on three bridges in the Bay Area, the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC), acting as the Bay Area Toll Authority, have been confronted with a variety of problems, ranging from a lengthy design process for the new East Span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge to protection for endangered fish at the Martinez-Benicia bridge construction site.
Unfortunately, delays for construction projects usually add to costs. This was certainly true for the Bay Bridge, where the extended design process may have been a factor in raising the cost to $2.6 billion. For the Benicia-Martinez Bridge, delays imposed by fish protection requirements threatened to send the project back to the drawing boards, or at least swallow money which had originally been allocated to other projects in the region.
In 1995, the total cost of the Benicia-Martinez Bridge was estimated at $286.4 million. The cost escalated due to a redesign to meet Coast Guard requirements, updated seismic analysis, more railroad crossings and changes at the northern end to satisfy concerns of the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission. Boosted by a strong economy, bids came in well above estimates, and in September 2001, Kiewit Pacific Company was awarded a $286.6 million contract for the main span of the bridge, with additional contracts needed for interchanges and approaches.
Other engineering problems were also encountered, but the greatest stumbling block became apparent in Spring 2002, when dead fish were discovered after a round of pile-driving. Many of the fish which swim through the Carquinez Strait and pass under the Benicia-Martinez Bridge are endangered or threatened species, including striped bass, salmon and steelhead, sturgeon, Delta smelt and Sacramento splittail. Other work on the bridge continued, but pile-driving was immediately discontinued while Caltrans consulted with the National Marine Fisheries Service and the California Department of Fish and Game.
Unlike the new span of the Carquinez Bridge, which is a suspension bridge (the first to be built in the Bay Area in decades), the Benicia-Martinez Bridge's second span will be supported by almost 75 deep-water piles and additional piles in shallow water at each end. The deep-water piles are 160 feet long and eight feet in diameter and must be pounded through mud into bedrock by hydraulic hammers. Each blow may move the pile only a fraction of an inch but creates 200 decibels of noise, which radiates outward in a shockwave which can be lethal to fish nearby. Fish rely on air in swim bladders to position themselves in the water, but the pressure in the bladders can be affected by shockwaves and burst the bladders, killing the fish.
Caltrans had developed a technique, using a "curtain" of air bubbles to absorb the shockwaves, to protect fish near construction for the new Bay Bridge span. However, because of differences in the areas around the two bridges, the air bubbles were not as effective at the Benicia-Martinez site. Caltrans began to experiment with variations, including one that held the air bubbles between the piles and a metal sleeve. This was cumbersome and expensive to use, and could have added $164-$300 million to the cost of the bridge if used for all pile-driving.
Meanwhile, resource agencies proposed to limit pile-driving to times of the year when the endangered species were not migrating in large numbers through the area, or to periods of slack tides when fish were not moving around.
By January 2003, it was clear that unless Caltrans and its contractors could find an solution which was both cost-effective and acceptable to the resource agencies, piles would not be in place by Fall 2003, an essential milestone for completing the bridge. With delay costing thousands of dollars per day, other projects to be funded from toll revenues were in jeopardy. These included deck rehabilitation on the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge, and a new Interstate 880-Highway 92 interchange.
In late January, Caltrans began testing a new version of the bubble curtain, generated by a cage of pipes around the piles. Underwater sound tests measuring decibel levels were satisfactory; regulatory agencies extended the pile-driving permit, which was set to expire at the end of February to protect fish as they began to migrate in March. The remaining piles should be in place within three to six months. The bubble curtain technique promises to be useful for the seismic retrofit on the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge, as well as the new Bay Bridge span.
A new timetable and financial picture are taking shape for the Benicia-Martinez Bridge. The revised opening date for the bridge has now moved from December 2004 to December 2005, and the projected total cost is now $570 million for the bridge, a new toll plaza and related interchanges, with some estimates putting it as high as $900 million. While the high estimate may not be realized unless some new problem arises, MTC is considering resources to pay for the increased costs which have already been incurred, and hoping to avoid similar problems on the other bridge construction projects.
Leslie Stewart
For more information:
Rod McMillan, MTC, 510-817-3260; rmcmillan@mtc.ca.gov
Greg Bayol, Caltrans, 510-286-6169
Commuters can now ride in comfort between Castro Valley and Foster City on a new AC Transit express bus route crossing the San Mateo Bridge. Buses with large windows, individual climate control at each seat, and upholstered seats will make seven round trips per day from Castro Valley and Hayward BART stations, stopping at Chabot College, Metro Center in Foster City, Hillsdale Mall and the Hillsdale CalTrain station.
The Line M service is part of a growing regional network of express buses. AC Transit is using federal funds earmarked for transit start-up service to establish this route, as well as routes to link the Altamont Commuter Express stations in Fremont and Great America with Alameda and Santa Clara County job centers and Stanford University. Other agencies are using their portions of a $40 million state grant given to the Bay Area in 2000 by expanding express bus service in East Contra Costa County, along I-680, and between Solano County and the El Cerrito Del Norte BART station.