Air Pollution

EPA Needs More Data From FHwA on Changes to Highway Projects Gao ID: RCED-90-72 March 20, 1990

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO addressed the states' implementation of a Clean Air Act requirement that federally funded highway projects conform to plans designed to reduce air pollution.

GAO found that: (1) the Clean Air Act did not specify how state conformity should be determined; (2) the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Federal Highway Administration (FHwA) disagreed on whether air quality analyses were needed to determine conformity for individual projects; (3) FHwA declined to perform additional air quality analyses that EPA needed to determine the extent of state compliance; (4) local planning agencies did not inform EPA of changes in project plans that could have affected air quality; (5) FHwA officials believed that project traffic forecasts did not show travel induced by new construction to be a significant causal factor for increased ozone pollution; and (6) the Department of Transportation and EPA needed better information on implementing transportation control measures.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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