66.033: Ozone Transport Commission

66.033

Active

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

Sept. 14, 2022

Sept. 14, 2022

The overall goal of the Ozone Transport Commission (OTC) grant is to facilitate collaboration among the OTC jurisdictions, notably the State Environmental Commissioners/Secretaries, State Air Directors and their staff, to assist them in reducing ozone precursor emissions in their states and in representing their ozone related issues to the EPA. The focus of the OTC is to ensure real results in air quality improvement in the Ozone Transport Region. The OTC brings together the State members to coordinate reductions in air pollution to benefit the entire region. The Ozone Transport Commission (OTC or the Commission) is the single regional multi-state organization created under the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 (CAA) responsible for advising EPA on ground-level ozone and its precursor pollutant transport issues. The Commission is responsible for developing and implementing regional solutions to the ground-level ozone problem in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic States. As directed under the CAA, EPA awards grants to the Commission under the authority of Section 106 of the CAA. Section 184 of the CAA established the Ozone Transport Region (OTR) that, by law, develops and recommends regional strategies for cleaning up air pollution. Funding Priorities - Fiscal Year 2021: The OTC states continue to face significant challenges in preparing SIPs for the attainment of the 2008 and the 2015 Ozone U.S. National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS). These challenges are highlighted by the recent increases in monitored ozone levels and will require a greater level of regional support and coordination from the OTC. The member states rely on OTC work products, particularly sound science, to meet their individual state implementation plan (SIP) obligations. The coordinated and collaborative effort of OTC’s Committees represents the most efficient, cost effective, and in certain cases the only possible means to assemble all the necessary elements of an attainment plan for OTC States. The OTC will continue to take a leadership role in coordinating with other Regional Planning Organizations (RPOs), contributing States, and EPA offices to assist in the resolution of ozone transport issues under CAA section 110 (a)(2)(D). The OTC Modeling Committee (MC) continued its work on regional air quality modeling to assist OTC states' efforts in attaining and maintaining the 2008 and 2015 (o3) National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) through regional measures developed in partnership with EPA. The MC focused on new 2016-based modeling platform development and testing, as well as updating emission inventories and assessments for base year 2016 and projection years 2023 and 2028. The new 2016 platform includes a newly enlarged OTC-12km modeling domain that extends farther to the west (including parts of Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico) and south (including Texas and Florida). The MC also developed plans for an OTC-4km nested grid located along the northeastern urban corridor and ocean coastline and model development is in progress. In ongoing work, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) Modeling Center is comparing the Integrated Planning Model (IPM) and Eastern Regional Technical Advisory Committee (ERTAC) electricity generating unit (EGU) options in the Community Multi-scale Air Quality (CMAQ) model output for biases in O3 design values for 2023 and 2028. Modeling simulations were recently redone to account for updates to the 2016 emissions platform for sectors including airports and EGUs. Additionally, NYSDEC modelers are comparing predicted O3 design value calculations at coastal monitoring sites using four different grid methods. Different methods result in variations in model-estimated design values at coastal monitor locations.

B - Cooperative Agreements (Discretionary Grants)

An agency or commission designated by the Governors of the affected States, which can recommend to those Governors' plans for implementation of national primary and secondary ambient air quality standards and which includes representation from the States and the appropriate political subdivisions within the affected air quality control region.

Municipalities, intermunicipalities, States, interstate agencies or commissions, and Federally recognized Indian tribes.

https://sam.gov/fal/8fbefc2ef10e411fb90992055b11d9a8/view