
From the U.S. Code Online via GPO Access
[wais.access.gpo.gov]
[Laws in effect as of January 23, 2000]
[Document affected by Public Law 106-377 Section 1(a)(1)]
[CITE: 42USC7506]

 
                 TITLE 42--THE PUBLIC HEALTH AND WELFARE
 
            CHAPTER 85--AIR POLLUTION PREVENTION AND CONTROL
 
                  SUBCHAPTER I--PROGRAMS AND ACTIVITIES
 
            Part D--Plan Requirements for Nonattainment Areas
 
                subpart 1--nonattainment areas in general
 
Sec. 7506. Limitations on certain Federal assistance


(a), (b) Repealed. Pub. L. 101-549, title I, Sec. 110(4), Nov. 15, 1990, 
        104 Stat. 2470

(c) Activities not conforming to approved or promulgated plans

    (1) No department, agency, or instrumentality of the Federal 
Government shall engage in, support in any way or provide financial 
assistance for, license or permit, or approve, any activity which does 
not conform to an implementation plan after it has been approved or 
promulgated under section 7410 of this title. No metropolitan planning 
organization designated under section 134 of title 23, shall give its 
approval to any project, program, or plan which does not conform to an 
implementation plan approved or promulgated under section 7410 of this 
title. The assurance of conformity to such an implementation plan shall 
be an affirmative responsibility of the head of such department, agency, 
or instrumentality. Conformity to an implementation plan means--
        (A) conformity to an implementation plan's purpose of 
    eliminating or reducing the severity and number of violations of the 
    national ambient air quality standards and achieving expeditious 
    attainment of such standards; and
        (B) that such activities will not--
            (i) cause or contribute to any new violation of any standard 
        in any area;
            (ii) increase the frequency or severity of any existing 
        violation of any standard in any area; or
            (iii) delay timely attainment of any standard or any 
        required interim emission reductions or other milestones in any 
        area.

The determination of conformity shall be based on the most recent 
estimates of emissions, and such estimates shall be determined from the 
most recent population, employment, travel and congestion estimates as 
determined by the metropolitan planning organization or other agency 
authorized to make such estimates.
    (2) Any transportation plan or program developed pursuant to title 
23 or chapter 53 of title 49 shall implement the transportation 
provisions of any applicable implementation plan approved under this 
chapter applicable to all or part of the area covered by such 
transportation plan or program. No Federal agency may approve, accept or 
fund any transportation plan, program or project unless such plan, 
program or project has been found to conform to any applicable 
implementation plan in effect under this chapter. In particular--
        (A) no transportation plan or transportation improvement program 
    may be adopted by a metropolitan planning organization designated 
    under title 23 or chapter 53 of title 49, or be found to be in 
    conformity by a metropolitan planning organization until a final 
    determination has been made that emissions expected from 
    implementation of such plans and programs are consistent with 
    estimates of emissions from motor vehicles and necessary emissions 
    reductions contained in the applicable implementation plan, and that 
    the plan or program will conform to the requirements of paragraph 
    (1)(B);
        (B) no metropolitan planning organization or other recipient of 
    funds under title 23 or chapter 53 of title 49 shall adopt or 
    approve a transportation improvement program of projects until it 
    determines that such program provides for timely implementation of 
    transportation control measures consistent with schedules included 
    in the applicable implementation plan;
        (C) a transportation project may be adopted or approved by a 
    metropolitan planning organization or any recipient of funds 
    designated under title 23 or chapter 53 of title 49, or found in 
    conformity by a metropolitan planning organization or approved, 
    accepted, or funded by the Department of Transportation only if it 
    meets either the requirements of subparagraph (D) or the following 
    requirements--
            (i) such a project comes from a conforming plan and program;
            (ii) the design concept and scope of such project have not 
        changed significantly since the conformity finding regarding the 
        plan and program from which the project derived; and
            (iii) the design concept and scope of such project at the 
        time of the conformity determination for the program was 
        adequate to determine emissions.

        (D) Any project not referred to in subparagraph (C) shall be 
    treated as conforming to the applicable implementation plan only if 
    it is demonstrated that the projected emissions from such project, 
    when considered together with emissions projected for the conforming 
    transportation plans and programs within the nonattainment area, do 
    not cause such plans and programs to exceed the emission reduction 
    projections and schedules assigned to such plans and programs in the 
    applicable implementation plan.

    (3) Until such time as the implementation plan revision referred to 
in paragraph (4)(C) is approved, conformity of such plans, programs, and 
projects will be demonstrated if--
        (A) the transportation plans and programs--
            (i) are consistent with the most recent estimates of mobile 
        source emissions;
            (ii) provide for the expeditious implementation of 
        transportation control measures in the applicable implementation 
        plan; and
            (iii) with respect to ozone and carbon monoxide 
        nonattainment areas, contribute to annual emissions reductions 
        consistent with sections 7511a(b)(1) and 7512a(a)(7) of this 
        title; and

        (B) the transportation projects--
            (i) come from a conforming transportation plan and program 
        as defined in subparagraph (A) or for 12 months after November 
        15, 1990, from a transportation program found to conform within 
        3 years prior to November 15, 1990; and
            (ii) in carbon monoxide nonattainment areas, eliminate or 
        reduce the severity and number of violations of the carbon 
        monoxide standards in the area substantially affected by the 
        project.

    With regard to subparagraph (B)(ii), such determination may be made 
    as part of either the conformity determination for the 
    transportation program or for the individual project taken as a 
    whole during the environmental review phase of project development.

    (4)(A) No later than one year after November 15, 1990, the 
Administrator shall promulgate criteria and procedures for determining 
conformity (except in the case of transportation plans, programs, and 
projects) of, and for keeping the Administrator informed about, the 
activities referred to in paragraph (1). No later than one year after 
November 15, 1990, the Administrator, with the concurrence of the 
Secretary of Transportation, shall promulgate criteria and procedures 
for demonstrating and assuring conformity in the case of transportation 
plans, programs, and projects. A suit may be brought against the 
Administrator and the Secretary of Transportation under section 7604 of 
this title to compel promulgation of such criteria and procedures and 
the Federal district court shall have jurisdiction to order such 
promulgation.
    (B) The procedures and criteria shall, at a minimum--
        (i) address the consultation procedures to be undertaken by 
    metropolitan planning organizations and the Secretary of 
    Transportation with State and local air quality agencies and State 
    departments of transportation before such organizations and the 
    Secretary make conformity determinations;
        (ii) address the appropriate frequency for making conformity 
    determinations, but in no case shall such determinations for 
    transportation plans and programs be less frequent than every three 
    years; and
        (iii) address how conformity determinations will be made with 
    respect to maintenance plans.

    (C) Such procedures shall also include a requirement that each State 
shall submit to the Administrator and the Secretary of Transportation 
within 24 months of November 15, 1990, a revision to its implementation 
plan that includes criteria and procedures for assessing the conformity 
of any plan, program, or project subject to the conformity requirements 
of this subsection.
    (D) Compliance with the rules of the Administrator for determining 
the conformity of transportation plans, programs, and projects funded or 
approved under title 23 or chapter 53 of title 49 to State or Federal 
implementation plans shall not be required for traffic signal 
synchronization projects prior to the funding, approval or 
implementation of such projects. The supporting regional emissions 
analysis for any conformity determination made with respect to a 
transportation plan, program, or project shall consider the effect on 
emissions of any such project funded, approved, or implemented prior to 
the conformity determination.
    (5) Applicability.--This subsection shall apply only with respect 
to--
        (A) a nonattainment area and each pollutant for which the area 
    is designated as a nonattainment area; and
        (B) an area that was designated as a nonattainment area but that 
    was later redesignated by the Administrator as an attainment area 
    and that is required to develop a maintenance plan under section 
    7505a of this title with respect to the specific pollutant for which 
    the area was designated nonattainment.

(d) Priority of achieving and maintaining national primary ambient air 
        quality standards

    Each department, agency, or instrumentality of the Federal 
Government having authority to conduct or support any program with air-
quality related transportation consequences shall give priority in the 
exercise of such authority, consistent with statutory requirements for 
allocation among States or other jurisdictions, to the implementation of 
those portions of plans prepared under this section to achieve and 
maintain the national primary ambient air-quality standard. This 
paragraph extends to, but is not limited to, authority exercised under 
chapter 53 of title 49, title 23, and the Housing and Urban Development 
Act.

(July 14, 1955, ch. 360, title I, Sec. 176, as added Pub. L. 95-95, 
title I, Sec. 129(b), Aug. 7, 1977, 91 Stat. 749; amended Pub. L. 95-
190, Sec. 14(a)(59), Nov. 16, 1977, 91 Stat. 1403; Pub. L. 101-549, 
title I, Secs. 101(f), 110(4), Nov. 15, 1990, 104 Stat. 2409, 2470; Pub. 
L. 104-59, title III, Sec. 305(b), Nov. 28, 1995, 109 Stat. 580; Pub. L. 
104-260, Sec. 1, Oct. 9, 1996, 110 Stat. 3175.)

                       References in Text

    The Housing and Urban Development Act, referred to in subsec. (d), 
may be the name for a series of acts sharing the same name but enacted 
in different years by Pub. L. 89-117, Aug. 10, 1965, 79 Stat. 451; Pub. 
L. 90-448, Aug. 1, 1968, 82 Stat. 476; Pub. L. 91-152, Dec. 24, 1969, 83 
Stat. 379; and Pub. L. 91-609, Dec. 31, 1970, 84 Stat. 1770, 
respectively. For complete classification of these Acts to the Code, see 
Short Title notes set out under section 1701 of Title 12, Banks and 
Banking, and Tables.

                          Codification

    In subsecs. (c)(2) and (d), ``chapter 53 of title 49'' substituted 
for ``the Urban Mass Transportation Act [49 App. U.S.C. 1601 et seq.]'' 
and in subsec. (c)(4)(D) substituted for ``Federal Transit Act'' on 
authority of Pub. L. 103-272, Sec. 6(b), July 5, 1994, 108 Stat. 1378 
(the first section of which enacted subtitles II, III, and V to X of 
Title 49, Transportation), and of Pub. L. 102-240, title III, 
Sec. 3003(b), Dec. 18, 1991, 105 Stat. 2088, which provided that 
references in laws to the Urban Mass Transportation Act of 1964 be 
deemed to be references to the Federal Transit Act.


                               Amendments

    1996--Subsec. (c)(4)(D). Pub. L. 104-260 added subpar. (D).
    1995--Subsec. (c)(5). Pub. L. 104-59 added par. (5).
    1990--Subsecs. (a), (b). Pub. L. 101-549, Sec. 110(4), struck out 
subsec. (a) which related to approval of projects or award of grants, 
and subsec. (b) which related to implementation of approved or 
promulgated plans.
    Subsec. (c). Pub. L. 101-549, Sec. 101(f), designated existing 
provisions as par. (1), struck out ``(1)'', ``(2)'', ``(3)'', and 
``(4)'' before ``engage in'', ``support in'', ``license or'', and 
``approve, any'', respectively, substituted ``conform to an 
implementation plan after it'' for ``conform to a plan after it'', 
``conform to an implementation plan approved'' for ``conform to a plan 
approved'', and ``conformity to such an implementation plan shall'' for 
``conformity to such a plan shall'', inserted ``Conformity to an 
implementation plan means--'' followed immediately by subpars. (A) and 
(B) and closing provisions relating to determination of conformity being 
based on recent estimates of emissions and the determination of such 
estimates, and added pars. (2) to (4).
    1977--Subsec. (a)(1). Pub. L. 95-190 inserted ``national'' before 
``primary''.
