OPA (A-107)
UNITED STATES
ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
WASHINGTON. D.C. 20460
OFFICIAL BUSINESS
PENALTY FOR PRIVATE USE $300
AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER
A
SSE% Environmental News
Fitzwater (202) 755-0344
Deister (202) 755-0344
FOR RELEASE AFTER 3:45 EDT, WEDNESDAY, MAY 28, 1975
STRELOW SAYS EPA-DOT COOPERATION VITAL TO SOLVING LOCAL CLEAN
AIR-MASS TRANSIT PROBLEMS
Closer cooperation between the Environmental Protection
Agency and the Department of Transportation (DOT) will provide
incentives for the local communities to solve their transpor-
tation-related air pollution problems, Roger Strelow, EPA
Assistant Administrator for Air and Waste Management, said
today.
"The ultimate effect of tying clean air and transportation
efforts more closely together at all levels of government
should be to shift the focus for action where it belongs—to
the State and regional levels and away from the Federal bureau-
cracy," he told the 9th Annual conference of the National
Association of Region Councils: Session on Environmental
Programs, meeting in Boston.
Strelow cited an emerging new DOT mass transit program
that has great potential for contributing to clean air.
"We are hopeful that an appropriate coordination of EPA
and DOT...will provide another element of the incentive package
I believe is needed to ensure local development and implemen-
tation of transportation controls," he continued. "The Urban
Mass Transportation Administration (UMTA) program would require
(more)
Return this (heat if you do NOT wish to receive this material ~. or If change of address Is needed ~ (indicate change, Including zip coda).
EPA FORM 1510-1 (REV. ^72)
POSTAGE AND FEES PAID
U.S. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
EPA-335
R-126

-------
-2-
consideration of many measures that EPA has promulgated or
suggested as part of the transportation control plans under
the Clean Air Act.
"We will be working with UMTA to 'get our act together1
insofar as possible, to ensure coordination of our respective
requirements."
"The UMTA program has given modest financial aid for a
number of years to help fund mass transit systems," he said.
"With new authorities and expanded funding, UMTA is developing
requirements governing eligibility for mass transit money to
ensure that reasonable measures are used to make transit systems
efficient."
"For example, aid recipients may be required to develop
an adequate plan and program for exclusive bus lanes," Strelow
said. "Bus lanes, included in a number of the clean air trans-
portation control plans, represent one of the various means
needed to ensure the kind of mass transit service that will
cause significant shifts away from private auto use, thereby
helping to meet clean air standards."
He said the UMTA program would also require local examina-
tion of other measures related to transit efficiency, such as
pricing or regulatory measures to reduce auto use.
"Just as we need some flexibility for the substance and
timing of transportation controls, we also need a more realistic
and appropriate institutional mechanism for their adoption
and implementation," Strelow said. I believe EPA must and
should be involved in defining the air quality cleanup that
is needed, but we should not be involved to anywhere near the
extent we now are in specifying the means for meeting the
cleanup goal in particular areas. The specific programs
needed simply must come forth from the local and regional level.
Several steps may be needed to achieve this objective.
"First, in order to establish the appropriate local role
in implementing transportation and other Clean Air Act measures,
the Act should probably be amended along the lines of Section
110 provisions recommended by the National Association of
Counties, National Governors Conference, National League of
Cities, and the U.S. Conference of Mayors. This would require
State Implementation Plans to have a process for intergovern-
mental cooperation with a right of local appeal to the Adminis-
trator of EPA for failure by a State to consult or otherwise
cooperate with local officials.
(more)
R-126

-------
"Second, local officials and agencies must be enabled and
required to work more effectively together to address trans-
portation-related and other regional air quality problems.
Starting with, and building upon, existing regional transporta-
tion planning and implementation institutions, it is possible
that a provision analogous to Section 208 of the Federal Water
Pollution Control Act should be incorporated into the Clean
Air Act. Such a mechanism would need to be tied in to both
Section 208 programs for water and existing transportation
and comprehensive planning mechanisms in order to avoid fragmen
tation of local and regional planning efforts.
"My office has been exploring this'208' possibility with
great interest. We have discussed the idea with Congressional
staffs and with local representatives, most notably through
an ad hoc advisory panel of mayors and county officials con-
vened for us by NACO and NLC. Further analysis must be done
before we reach firmer conclusions, but our belief at this
time is that there should be a specific regional planning and
implementation mechanism, at least generally along the lines of
the Section 208 areawide waste management provision."
# # #

-------