Hello all, 
   We may have manna from heaven falling with regard to shaking up NIRPC's transportation planning.  The modeling shows that the Lake and Porter county portion of the region cannot meet air quality conformity for the years 2005 and 2007.  This means that the air pollution from autos, SUVs, trucks, and buses driving everywhere around the region is too high (by about 15% for VOC's (volatile organic carbon) in the air we breather.  The modeling for 2010 and beyond passes the air quality conformity test because vehicles are supposed to run a whole lot  cleaner by then even though vehicle miles traveled goes up and up. 
   To some extent this may be the fault of the last long range transportation plan's sprawl as usual planning and not this one's sprawl planning.  There is some effort being made to "dumb down" IDEM's fleet data which shows something we all notice--lots of double polluting SUV's and pickup trucks driving around.  Another option is to say we can pollute the air more if IDEM and EPA will give us a higher amount of allowable pollution in our "SIP" budget.
   I think this is worthy of some regional discussion on why we need an alternative to sprawl as usual transportation planning.  Are you willing to take a position on this and write a letter to the editor of the newspaper or to NIRPC?  This is a tough position for NIRPC staff to be in, though it isn't their fault that the model shows too much pollution. I am thinking of seeing if this is worth a newspaper story too. 
   Read the attachment for details.  Thank you!  Sandy O'Brien
---- Original Message -----
From: Ken Dallmeyer
To: 'Duane Alverson' ; 'Vanessa Adams' ; 'Mitchell Bishop' ; 'Bryan Bullock' ; 'Lucinda Bush' ; 'Laurence Brown' ; 'Tim Brown' ; 'Dennis Cobb' ; 'Iris Comer' ; 'Joe Crnkovich' ; 'Ursula Cano' ; 'Scott Deloney' ; 'Stan Dostatni' ; 'Jarad Forte' ; 'Michael Gealt' ; 'Eloise Gentry' ; 'Lawrence M. Heil' ; 'David Holtz' ; 'Sandy Hurubean' ; 'Earl Jones' ; 'Denarie Kane' ; 'Hesham Khalil' ; 'Peter Kohut' ; 'A.J. Monroe' ; 'Patricia Morris' ; 'Roy Nunnally' ; 'Sandy O'Brien' ; 'Nancy Pekerek' ; 'Shawn Pettit' ; 'Daniel J. Piekarski' ; 'Spike Peller' ; 'John Pugh' ; 'Dave Schelling' ; 'David Shafer' ; 'Jamile Smith' ; 'John Stankovic' ; 'Karen Stone' ; 'Lisa Shrader' ; 'Tim Sutherland' ; 'Mary Jane Thomas' ; 'Robert W Thompson Jr.' ; 'Wayne Welter' ; 'David Wright'
Sent: Friday, February 18, 2005 4:10 PM
Subject: RE: Connection 2030 Status with Respect to Conformity and Adoption

Here is the attachment

Ken

-----Original Message-----
From: Ken Dallmeyer [mailto:kdallmeyer@nirpc.org]
Sent: Friday, February 18, 2005 2:32 PM
To: 'Duane Alverson'; 'Vanessa Adams'; 'Mitchell Bishop'; 'Bryan Bullock'; 'Lucinda Bush'; 'Laurence Brown'; 'Tim Brown'; 'Dennis Cobb'; 'Iris Comer'; 'Joe Crnkovich'; 'Ursula Cano'; 'Scott Deloney'; 'Stan Dostatni'; 'Jarad Forte'; 'Michael Gealt'; 'Eloise Gentry'; 'Lawrence M. Heil'; 'David Holtz'; 'Sandy Hurubean'; 'Earl Jones'; 'Denarie Kane'; 'Hesham Khalil'; 'Peter Kohut'; 'A.J. Monroe'; 'Patricia Morris'; 'Roy Nunnally'; 'Sandy O'Brien'; 'Nancy Pekerek'; 'Shawn Pettit'; 'Daniel J. Piekarski'; 'Spike Peller'; 'John Pugh'; 'Dave Schelling'; 'David Shafer'; 'Jamile Smith'; 'John Stankovic'; 'Karen Stone'; 'Lisa Shrader'; 'Tim Sutherland'; 'Mary Jane Thomas'; 'Robert W Thompson Jr.'; 'Wayne Welter'; 'David Wright'
Subject: Connection 2030 Status with Respect to Conformity and Adoption 

Dear Participants in the Connections 2030 Planning Process,

I want to let you know that the Connections 2030 Regional Transportation Plan is still not approved by the NIRPC Commission.  We continue to be unable to document that the plan will meet the State of Indiana’s budgets for emissions into the atmosphere in the short term.  We are continuing to work with the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, Indiana Department of Transportation, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Transportation.

 Attached is our report to the Commissions Executive Board.

Sincerely
Ken
Kenneth E. Dallmeyer
Director of Transportation Planning
Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commission
6100 Southport Rd.
Portage, IN 46368
(219) 763-6060 x120
(219) 762-1653
kdallmeyer@nirpc.org