Environmental Red Lights, Green Lights in New Transportation Law

WASHINGTON, DC, August 1, 2005 (ENS) - A $286.4 billion transportation bill was signed into law by President George W. Bush on Saturday, enacting a measure that covers six years of funding for federal highways and transit programs, as well as highway safety and motor carrier safety programs.

About 80 percent of the funding in the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act - A Legacy For Users, or SAFETEA-LU, will pay for highway projects, with most of the remainder earmarked for mass transit.

Environmentalists called SAFETEA-LU a mixed bag, but applauded positive advances such as a provision that includes wildlife conservation in transportation planning, a measure to improve the transport of hazardous materials, funding for the Clean School Bus program, and billions in funding to reduce air pollution from construction equipment.

The Interstate 15 Highway at rush hour in San Diego, California (Photo courtesy San Diego County)

This legislation improves transportation project delivery "by insuring better coordination among state departments of transportation and federal permitting agencies," Young said. "This bill results in safer roads, which are built faster and that last longer."

Congressman Tom Petri, a Wisconsin Republican who chairs the House Subcommittee on Highways, Transit and Pipelines, said, "We faced tremendous expectations and pressures with a finite amount of money - much less than is necessary to meet the overwhelming transportation needs across this country."

"During this reauthorization effort, I have traveled to cities across the nation and have met with governors, mayors, business interests and others, and saw first hand the many critical and necessary infrastructure projects that we as a nation need to complete," Petri said, calling the bill "a step forward in helping us meet those needs."

American Public Transportation Association (APTA) President William Millar agrees that a great deal more money will be needed in the immediate future to cover infrastructure needs, "The U.S. Department of Transportation has identified infrastructure needs far in excess of the final amount approved in this new legislation, and our members hope that Congress will continue to review funding sources and mechanisms that will enable us to more completely address the growing needs in our country," Millar said.

APTA is a nonprofit international association of 1,500 member organizations including public transportation systems; planning, design, construction and finance firms; product and service providers; academic institutions, and state associations and departments of transportation.

Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta said the measure is a step forward. "This bill funds vital new transportation projects, holds the line on gas taxes and avoids adding to the deficit," he said.

Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee Co-Chairman Daniel Inouye, a Hawaii Democrat, said, "This landmark highway safety bill will make passenger cars safer, reduce drunk driving, increase seat belt use, and improve the safety of trucks and the transport of hazardous materials. These significant improvements will save thousands of lives and prevent thousands of injuries each year."

Joan Claybrook, president of the nonprofit group Public Citizen and a former administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), said the biggest impact will come from addressing the two most lethal types of crashes – rollovers and side impacts. This law requires the NHTSA to create, for the first time, a stability standard designed to prevent rollovers by April 2009 and write new rules to protect occupants in these side impact crashes by July 2008.

Hazardous material spills from an overturned truck near Oklahoma City. (Photo courtesy Oklahoma City)

The Recreational Boating Safety and Sport Fish Restoration programs were reauthorized, allowing continued funding for activities that will protect coastal wetlands, promote sport fish restoration, reduce water quality impacts from recreational vessels, and increase boating access.

The new law streamlines the federal Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing loan program and increases the amount of loans for railroad infrastructure improvements. A new program to fund the relocation of rail lines and other projects that help ease congestion, noise, and other impacts from railroads on communities was included, as was additional funding for high speed rail planning and development efforts.

U.S. Conference of Mayors President Beverly O'Neill said mayors are pleased with the law. "This bill is a major victory for mayors across the nation in that it provides more than $286 billion for the expansion of public transportation systems, as well portions of large scale transportation infrastructure projects," she said."

O'Neill said the funding will be welcome to cities that are "choking with congested highways, over-crowded buses and rail and structurally deficient or functionally obsolete bridges and tunnels."

"While this bill does not fulfill every transportation need that mayors may have," she said will provide for the increased movement of goods and people, will create much-needed jobs and reduce congestion, while maintaining a commitment to safety and the environment."

A provision to provide access to billions in funding to reduce air pollution from construction equipment authored by Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, a New York Democrat, and cosponsored by Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman James Inhofe, an Oklahoma Republican is included in the law.

Breathing in diesel fumes can cause coughing, itchy or burning eyes, chest constriction, wheezing, and difficulty breathing in the short term. Over the long term exposure increases the risk of lung and bladder cancer. (Photo courtesy CDC)

“This legislation has enormous potential to reduce pollution, create manufacturing jobs, and help the small businesses that build our roads and highways,” said Senator Clinton. “It provides access to billions of dollars for states and localities to use to help road builders add modern pollution controls to their equipment.

The filters in these controls are manufactured by Corning Inc. in New York state. Peter Volanakis, Corning CEO, said, "In addition to providing communities across the U.S. with new options for achieving cleaner air, this provision has the potential to increase demand for diesel after-treatment systems by helping to finance the installation of retrofits on existing diesel vehicles and equipment."

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency figures show there are approximately 1.2 million pieces of construction equipment that could benefit from being retrofitted with pollution control or anti-idling technologies.

A typical piece of construction equipment, such as a 178 horsepower bulldozer, emits as much pollution as 26 new cars today, which contributes to ozone and fine particulate pollution. Exposure to fine particles has been linked with premature death, respiratory and cardiovascular disease, decreased lung function, asthma attacks, and cardiovascular problems. Children, the elderly, and people with heart and lung disease are particularly vulnerable.

Adding pollution controls to construction equipment can cut these harmful emissions by more than 90 percent

After much debate, Congress included provisions to include wildlife conservation in transportation planning. "This is historic," said Trisha White, director of Defenders' Habitat & Highways Campaign. "For the first time ever, wildlife will be one of the first things considered when building roads, instead of the last."

Currently, highway projects are planned, funded and designed before considering the potential impacts to wildlife and habitat. Often, this can lead to expensive delays, lawsuits and unnecessary loss of habitat. Under new law, transportation planners will consider habitat locations to avoid building roads in these sensitive areas, concentrating more on improving existing roads and highways.

Congress also commissioned a comprehensive study on the causes and impacts of wildlife- vehicle collisions, and fully funded the Enhancements program that provides funding for wildlife passages.

"The conservation of our Nation's precious wildlife will now be part and parcel of highway planning, which should lead to increased efficiencies in road building, savings to the American taxpayer and the preservation of critical wildlife habitat," said Congressman Nick Rahall, a West Virginia Democrat.

The Alaska Coalition is critical of funding included in the bill for a $200 million bridge that the group says would impact feeding grounds of the rare Cook Inlet Beluga Whale, a species of special concern.

The coalition of nearly 1000 conservation, sporting, labor, and religious groups says construction of the two mile long Knik Arm Bridge to connect the city of Anchorage to hundreds of square miles of unpopulated wetlands would cost upwards of $1.5 billion. The Anchorage Chamber of Commerce also has raised serious questions about the project.

Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski included a provision in the law that designates the highway route between Fairbanks, Alaska and the Canadian border as a new international high priority corridor. The designation is intended to assist the State in obtaining additional funds to upgrade that area of roadway, if necessary, for anticipated heavy traffic associated with future gas line construction. The Dalton Highway from the North Slope to Fairbanks already has a similar designation.

Environmentalists also object to construction funding of $223 million in the bill for the Gravina Bridge to link the city of Ketchikan on Revilla Island and the city’s airport on Gravina Island. They fear it would lead to impacts on the road-free watersheds of the Tongass National Forest. The bridge, which would be nearly as long as the Golden Gate Bridge, and higher than the Brooklyn Bridge, would replace a 7-minute ferry ride to the local airport. In the past year alone, cost estimates for the project have risen another 37 percent to $315 million.

An avalanche along the proposed Juneau Access Road route. March 12, 2005. (Photo by Scott Logan courtesy Alaska Coalition)

Residents of all three of the affected communities: Juneau, Haines and Skagway, are on record as opposing the road and instead support improvements to the Alaska Marine Highway System, a designated National Scenic Byway.

In another transportation measure passed Friday, the Transit in Parks Act authorizes approximately $24 million annually for six years to develop new and expanded mass transit services, pedestrian walkways, and bike paths within and near the national parks and other public lands.

"Congressman Rahall and Senator Sarbanes are champions for our national parks and for the 300 million people who visit annually," said National Parks Conservation Association President for Government Affairs Craig Obey. "Thanks to their leadership, the National Park Service can afford to bring relief to parks and visitors suffering from traffic congestion and choking on fumes."

For example, at Grand Canyon National Park, nearly 6,000 vehicles may arrive in a single summer day, competing for 2,400 parking spaces. At Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the most popular national park in the country, nine million people annually crowd park roads. It can take visitors as long as four hours to drive the 11 mile loop road through the picturesque and popular Cades Cove area of the park - which is a 40 minute trip in the off season.

Yet some environmentalists object to bicycle paths in national parks, saying that cyclists disturb wildlife even more than vehicles.