editor – Page 57 – Environmental Technical Assistance Program Newsletter

Environmental News Highlights – March 24, 2021

Waiver of Aeronautical Land Use Assurance: Independence Municipal Airport (IDP), Independence, KS – FAA (Notice of intent of waiver with respect to land use change from aeronautical to non-aeronautical)

Takes of Marine Mammals Incidental to Specified Activities; Taking Marine Mammals Incidental to the Parallel Thimble Shoal Tunnel Project in Virginia Beach, Virginia – National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and NOAA (Notice; issuance of Renewal incidental harassment authorization)

Takes of Marine Mammals Incidental to Specified Activities; Taking Marine Mammals Incidental to the Old Sitka Dock North Dolphins Expansion Project in Sitka, Alaska – National Marine Fisheries Service and NOAA (Notice; proposed issuance of an Incidental Harassment Authorization; request for comments)

Revolving Fund Program—Water and Environmental Provisions of the Agricultural Improvement Act of 2018 – Rural Utilities Service (Final rule)

Advisory Committee on Earthquake Hazards Reduction Meeting – National Institute of Standards and Technology (Notice of open meeting)

Agency Information Collection Activities; DOI Generic Clearance for Crowdsourcing and Citizen Science Activities – Interior (Notice of information collection; request for comment)

Ohio DOT Asks Public to Help Solve Litter Problem

The Ohio Department of Transportation is launching a public outreach campaign to reduce litter along state roadways – emphasizing that agency crews assigned to pick up trash are being diverted from more important tasks, such as patching potholes, replacing culverts, and other work.

[Photo courtesy of the Ohio Department of Transportation.]

The Ohio DOT said its crews collect more than 400,000 bags of other people’s trash from along state roadsides each year – and effort costing roughly $4 million annually.

“Sadly, that time and money goes to address an issue that’s 100 percent preventable,” the agency said in a statement.

“The same men and women who pick up trash along our roadways also perform other vital work like plowing snow, patching potholes, repairing guardrail, mowing grass, and replacing culverts,” the agency emphasized. “Picking up other people’s trash takes them away from those important jobs.”

Other state departments of transportation are engaging in similar outreach efforts to reduce roadway litter.

The Missouri Department of Transportation launches its annual highway litter cleanup effort – dubbed the ‘No MOre Trash! Bash’ – on April 1. The agency added in a statement that it spent $6.4 million to remove litter from more than 385,000 acres of roadsides along 34,000 state highway miles in 2020. The Missouri DOT also noted its annual volunteer efforts to pick up litter along state highways – including the Adopt-A-Highway program – are valued at more than $1 million.

The North Carolina Department of Transportation is gearing up for its annual Spring Litter Sweep to remove trash from along the state’s roadways, which will run from April 10-24 this year.

To date, the agency said its crews, contractors, and volunteers have already collected some 1.8 million pounds of litter from roadsides statewide since January 1.

“We are only just beginning this year’s efforts to clean up and prevent litter on our roadsides,” noted Eric Boyette, NCDOT’s secretary, in a statement. “But we need everyone’s help. We all are responsible for keeping North Carolina clean and beautiful.”

The South Carolina Department of Transportation noted that 1,700 of its employees picked up 13,130 bags of roadside trash weighing 209,725 pounds on November 17, 2020, in support of Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette’s “Grab A Bag SC 2020” statewide cleanup program.

In October 2020, the Georgia Department of Transportation launched a new anti-litter campaign – called “Keep It Clean Georgia” – focused on preventing and eliminating litter along 50,000 miles of interstates and statewide routes.

The Virginia Department of Transportation launched a public outreach campaign entitled Virginia is for Lovers, Not Litter in September 2020; noting that it spends nearly $3.5 million annually to remove litter from Virginia’s roadways, with more than half of that litter coming from motorists with another 25 percent from pedestrians.

The cost of litter removal from state roadways does not come cheap. In February 2020, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation released the results of a Pennsylvania Litter Research Study that indicated trash cleanup efforts removed more than 502 million pieces of litter from Pennsylvania’s roads.

That study found that the most common trash collected by roadside cleanup efforts are cigarette butts (37 percent) and plastics (30 percent), while plastic film and beverage containers are the most prevalent items – with an estimated 29.3 million beverage containers alone littering the state’s roadways.

Pennsylvania’s cities collectively spend more than $68 million annually on cleanup, education, enforcement, and prevention efforts related to litter and illegal dumping, the study found, with PennDOT spending upwards of $13 million per year on staff and resources to pick up litter along state-owned roadways.

Arizona DOT Works to Protect Plant Species in Highway Construction Zone

As an 11-mile reconstruction project along Interstate 10 between Interstate 17 and the Loop 202 gets ready to start, biologists with the Arizona Department of Transportation are preparing to relocate native plants out of the way.

[Photo courtesy of the Arizona Department of Transportation.]

The agency said its crews are identifying state-protected plants in the planned construction zone – such as ocotillo and saguaro and barrel cactus – and studying roughly 2,500 trees to identify native species, including palo verde, mesquite and ironwood.

The Arizona DOT plans to relocate most of them into temporary nurseries during construction, transplanting them back to their roadside habitats when construction work is complete.

“Protecting the natural Arizona environment is an important part of our work,” said Robert Samour, senior deputy state engineer and leader of Arizona DOT’s major projects group, in a statement.

“There were more than 1,000 plants along the South Mountain Freeway that we maintained for more than three years and replanted after construction to preserve the plants and the beautiful landscape,” he said.

[The Arizona DOT conducted a similar relocation effort in 2018 for native cactus plants located near a bridge replacement project on U.S. 60 where that highway crosses Pinto Creek six miles from the town of Miami, which is a little more than 81 miles due west of Phoenix.]

The Arizona DOT anticipates starting the I-10 reconstruction project this summer, relocating native plants and utility lines. The agency anticipates construction will be complete by late 2024, with the project ultimately improving travel time and safety, as well as easing access to Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport and supporting local, regional, and state economic growth.

Environmental News Highlights – March 17, 2021

FEDERAL ACTION

Transportation Getting $100B from $1.9T COVID Package – AASHTO Journal

USDA Investing $285M in Transportation, Infrastructure – AASHTO Journal

Leveraging Policy, Funding to Improve Infrastructure Resiliency – AASHTO Journal

Sen. Ed Markey Pushes Climate-Focused Transportation Bills – Transportation Topics

New Version of Ports-to-Plains Highway Bill Authored in Congress – KKAM

Biden eyes tougher approach to measuring impact of greenhouse gases – The Hill

COVID-19

How contactless technology is defining the customer experience post-COVID-19 – Future Travel Experience

Aviation industry urges Biden to back COVID-19 health credentials – Reuters

INFRASTRUCTURE RESILIENCE AND SUSTAINABILITY

Texas has lessons for all of us on infrastructure resilience – The Hill

To Fight Flooding, This City Plans to Renovate – and Retreat – Bloomberg Green

Breakingviews – U.S. stimulus is map for infrastructure bonanza – Reuters

Infrastructure’s Time Has Come – Supply Chain Management Review (Opinion)

For Transportation Infrastructure, Look to Cities to Do It Right – Governing (Commentary)

AIR QUALITY

Trump Change to Pollution Rules Survives New Jersey Appeal – Courthouse News Service

New York Pilots Program to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions Through Heat Pump Technology – ACHR News

ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE

In call for environmental justice, Biden’s climate agenda reaches into neighborhoods – Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Albuquerque invests in electric buses, and calls for transit equity – Daily Lobo

NATURAL RESOURCES

Caltrans Specialists Scale Boulders & Cliffsides to Protect Motorist Safety – Using Courage, Know-How & Explosives! – Caltrans (Video)

Trump’s water rule now enforced nationally – National Hog Farmer

Arizona seeks to create surface water protections after Clean Water Act rollback – Arizona PBS

Park closes roads for restoration work, amphibian crossings – Pike County Courier

What Is A Wetland? – WorldAtlas

Environmental nonprofits join forces to hire ‘science geek’ to help fix the region’s water woes – News-Press

Beverly Gard: Wetlands bill needs more study before lawmakers act blindly – Indianapolis Business Journal (Opinion)

HEALTH AND HUMAN ENVIRONMENT/ACTIVE TRANSPORTATION

Caltrans asks for public input on areas to improve bicycling, walking – KNX

Atlanta BeltLine moves toward finding Northwest Trail route through Buckhead; transit route to follow – Reporter Newspapers

More bike lanes are coming to Reston and Herndon this year – Reston Now

TRB RESOURCES/ANNOUNCEMENTS

TRB Webinar: Real-Time Response – A Pandemic Playbook for Public Transportation Agencies – TRB

TRB Webinar: The New Virtual Reality for Public Meetings and Social Distancing – TRB

TRB Webinar: Emerging Challenges for Congestion Pricing on Managed Lanes – TRB

TRB’s Transportation Explorers Podcast: Communicating and Using Transit to Get People to Vaccines – TRB

Airport Authority Launches Interactive Map – Charlotte County Airport Authority (Press Release)

FEDERAL REGISTER NOTICES

Information Collection; National Woodland Owner Survey – Forest Service (Notice; request for comment)

Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission to the Office of Management and Budget for Review and Approval; Oil Shale Management – Bureau of Land Management (Notice of information collection; request for comment)

Proposed Revisions to the National Handbook of Conservation Practices for the Natural Resources Conservation Service – Natural Resources Conservation Service (Notice of availability; request for comment)

Air Plan Approval; Ohio; Infrastructure SIP Requirements for the 2015 Ozone NAAQS – EPA (Proposed rule)

Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Proposed Southern Bighorn Solar Projects, Clark County, Nevada – Bureau of Indian Affairs (Notice of availability)

Notice of Availability of a Final Environmental Impact Statement for Vineyard Wind LLC’s Proposed Wind Energy Facility Offshore Massachusetts – Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (Notice of availability; final environmental impact statement)

Recertification of Prince William Sound Regional Citizens’ Advisory Council – Coast Guard (Notice of recertification)

Review of Nomination for Lake Erie Quadrangle National Marine Sanctuary – National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Notice)

Caltrans: Rebuilt Section of Highway 1 Could ‘Last for Centuries’

Recent hydrological studies indicate to the California Department of Transportation that it can rebuild a washed-out section of the famed Pacific Coast Highway with a massive new drainage system that would protect the roadway well past the 22^nd Century.

[Photo courtesy of the California Department of Transportation.]

Three days of heavy rains spawned a river of mud, boulders, and fire debris on January 28 that overwhelmed a 150-foot section of the iconic Highway 1, sending it into the ocean. A five-mile section of the roadway remains closed at Rat Creek on Monterey County’s Big Sur Coast while contractors work toward an early summer re-opening.

“We’re returning the road to how it was before, but with modern engineering,” said Caltrans Public Information Officer Kevin Drabinski.

The washout left a V-shaped cavity where the old fill had cradled a 66-inch culvert for Rat Creek. Contractors will re-fill, compact the material, and bore the fill to accommodate a 10.5-foot culvert before rebuilding the roadway atop the fill.

Drabinski said the new drainage system would also feature a secondary culvert and some smaller culverts closer to highway grade, providing redundancy should another major incident occur.

“Our hydrological studies looked at models of another large fire followed by intensive rain,” he noted. “We’re confident this new design will stand for centuries to come.”

Drabinski added that the old culvert was installed decades ago and simply couldn’t handle the swollen creek that carried boulders, fire debris, mud, and a lot of water, all fueled by 17 inches of rain in three days. A massive tree trunk jammed the culvert, turning the creek into a lake and the highway into a dam. Eventually, the water and debris overtopped and washed out the road.

Contractors are hauling away tens of thousands of cubic yards of fill material while also properly disposing of the debris left behind by the landslide, Drabinski pointed out.

“There are designated sites for the debris haul,” he said. “We have very specific rules about how we dispose of that. You can’t just haul it away. You can’t throw a mudball into the Pacific Ocean.”

Caltrans believes it can finish the work by early summer, depending on rain. Crews are working every day, “and we’re making hay while the sun shines for now,” Drabinski emphasized.

Minnesota DOT Adopting Broad Array of Sustainability Initiatives

The Minnesota Department of Transportation is adopting a slate of recommendations proposed by the Sustainable Transportation Advisory Council or STAC in order to create “measurable strategies” to help the state transition to a low-carbon transportation system.

[Photo courtesy of the Minnesota Department of transportation.]

Those recommendations include:

Developing a clean fuels policy.
Supporting electric vehicle rebates.
Increasing investment in charging infrastructure.
Setting a preliminary 20 percent goal of reducing vehicle miles traveled or VMT statewide by 2050.
Prioritizing transit and high-occupancy vehicles on agency-owned right of way.
Continuing to prioritize other solutions before considering highway expansion

“We are deeply grateful to the members of the STAC for their thorough recommendations as we work collaboratively to reduce carbon pollution from the transportation sector,” noted Margaret Anderson Kelliher, Minnesota DOT’s commissioner, in a statement.

Commissioner Margaret Anderson Kelliher. Photo courtesy of the Minnesota DOT.

“Our climate is changing, and we all share in the responsibility of working harder to achieve Minnesota’s Next Generation Energy Act emission reduction goals. The recommendations of the STAC will be critical to our success,” she added.

The Minnesota DOT created STAC following its 2019 report Pathways to Decarbonizing Transportation, which identified several actions, recommendations, and opportunities to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from surface transportation.

“The MnDOT is leading with action by convening and listening to a diverse group of community leaders on the STAC,” noted Chris Clark, president of Xcel Energy and STAC’s co-chair.

“But make no mistake, the MnDOT can’t do this work alone,” he explained, “Decreasing greenhouse gas emissions will require significant public-private and interagency partnerships as well as coordination with municipal and county agencies. Our STAC recommendations are one important step, and we appreciate that the MnDOT is moving forward with many of them.”

Concurrently, the Accessibility Observatory at the University of Minnesota is moving into the second phase of a multi-year national pooled-fund study to measure access to destinations, such as jobs, education, and health care as a way to guide transportation investments and land-use planning.

“Measuring access to destinations gives us the clearest possible view of how well our transportation systems connect travelers with important destinations,” explained Andrew Owen, the Observatory’s director, in a statement.

“It can also reveal how transportation and land use planning work together to set the stage for future growth and sustainability,” he added. “Comprehensive accessibility metrics can help planners make wise, cost-effective transportation system investments that will best serve public needs as they evolve through an increasingly uncertain future.”