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Air toxics is an emerging area that has received more and more attention ― from transportation/environmental agencies, academic researchers, and the public, because of
potential health issues and uncertainties with modeling and the science behind mobile source air toxics (MSAT). Currently 188 air toxics are identified in the Clean Air Act as hazardous air pollutants. Among them, 21 are labeled as mobile source air toxics by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). However, there are no regulatory concentration standards set up for the six MSATs. In response to the need for federal guidance in documenting MSAT impacts by state DOTs, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) issued Interim Guidance on February 3, 2006. Given the many uncertainties with the new guidance that were evolving, the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) proposed convening a meeting of six Midwestern states (Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin) to discuss the technical and practical issues and uncertainties arising from the new MSAT guidance and to exchange ideas and experiences in documenting MSATs in NEPA documents.
On October 5-6, 2006, the Mobile Source Air Toxics Peer
Exchange Meeting was successfully held at Allerton Park, Monticello, Illinois, facilitated by the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). Twenty-one participants from the six state DOTs, FHWA, US EPA Region 5 Office, Illinois EPA and UIC attended the meeting.
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