20A - AA FIRST ST BRIDGE REPLACEMENT PROJECT

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LSA ASSOCIATES, INC. INITIAL STUDY/MITIGATED NEGATIVE DECLARATION JULY 2010 FIRST STREET BRIDGE REPLACEMENT PROJECT CITY OF SANTA ANA ambient air quality standards. The proposed project will help to improve traffic flow and reduce congestion on roadway links in the project vicinity. The project is located in an attainment area for federal CO standards. Using the California Department of Transportation's (Caltrans) Transportation Project-Level Carbon Monoxide Protocol (Protocol), a screening CO hot-spot analysis was conducted to determine whether the proposed project would result in any CO hot spots. It was determined that the proposed project will not result in any exceedances of the 1-hour or 8-hour CO standards. The proposed project is within a federal nonattainment area for particulate matter (PM) less than 2.5 in diameter (PM2.5) and particulate matter less than 10 microns in diameter (PM10) standards. Therefore, per 40 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), Part 93, analyses are required for conformity purposes. However, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) does not require hot- spot analyses, qualitative or quantitative, for projects that are not listed in Section 93.123(b)(1) as an air quality concern. It was determined through interagency consultation that the proposed project will not contribute to a PM2.5 or PM10 hot spot that will cause or contribute to a violation of the federal PM2.5 or PMl0 standards. Compliance with South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) Rules and Regulations during construction will reduce construction-related air quality impacts from fugitive dust emissions and construction equipment emissions. Because the proposed roadway improvement project does not generate new regional vehicular trips, no new regional vehicular emissions would occur. The proposed project may have a beneficial effect in helping to reduce congestion on roadway links in the project vicinity. The project is located in Orange County, which is not among the counties listed as containing serpentine and ultramafic rock. Therefore, the impact from naturally occurring asbestos (NOA) during project construction would be minimal to none. The project is in the 2008 Regional Transportation Plan (RTP), which was found to be conforming by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA)/Federal Transit Administration (FTA) on June 5, 2008. The project is also in the 2008 Regional Transportation Improvement Program (RTIP), which was found to be conforming by the FHWA/FTA on November 17, 2008 (Project ID: ORA120521; Description: Santa Ana - First Street widening [from Susan to Fairview; from 4 to 6 lanes] bridge). Regional PM10 State Implementation Plan (SIP) budget compliance was accounted for during the current approved RTP and RTIP conformity determination. Therefore, the proposed project is in conformance with the SIP. Climate Change While climate change has been a concern since at least 1988, as evidenced by the establishment of the United Nations and World Meteorological Organization's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the efforts devoted to greenhouse gas' (GHG) emissions reduction and climate change research and policy have increased dramatically in recent years. These efforts are primarily concerned with the emissions of GHGs related to human activity that include carbon dioxide (C02), ' GHGs related to human activity include: C02, M4, N20, tetrafluoromethane, hexafluoroethane, SF6, HFC-23, HFC-134a*, and HFC-152a*. 07/25/10 ,,PADMJ070l\MND\4.0 Environmental Analysis.doc» 4-4 20A-55