N.M. Code R. § 20.11.4.159 Procedures For Conformity Determination of Federal Actions

• Library: New Mexico Administrative Code
• Edition: 2023
• Currency: Current through Register Vol. 34, No. 21, November7, 2023
• Citation: N.M. Code R. § 20.11.4.159
• Year: 2023

A. The analyses required under 20.11.4 NMAC must be based on the latest planning assumptions.

(1) All planning assumptions (such as per capita water and sewer use, vehicle miles traveled per capita or per household trip generation per household, vehicle occupancy, household size, vehicle fleet mix, vehicle ownership, woodstoves per household, and the geographic distribution of population growth) must be derived from the estimates of population, employment, travel, and congestion most recently approved by the MPO, or other agency authorized to make such estimates, where available.

(2) Any revisions to these estimates used as part of the conformity determination, including projected shifts in geographic location or level of population, employment travel, and congestion, must be approved by the MPO or other agency authorized to make such estimates for the urban area.

B. The analyses required under 20.11.4 NMAC must be based on the latest and most accurate emission estimation techniques available as described below, unless such techniques are inappropriate. If such techniques are inappropriate, the federal agency may obtain written approval from the regional administrator for EPA region VI for a modification or substitution, of another technique on a case-by-case basis or, where appropriate, on a generic basis for a specific federal agency program.

(1) For motor vehicle emissions, the most current version of the motor vehicle emissions model specified by EPA and available for use in the preparation or revision of the applicable SIP must be used for the conformity analysis as specified in Subparagraph (a) and (b), of Paragraph (1) of Subsection B of 20.11.4.159 NMAC (a) the EPA must publish in the federal Register a notice of availability of any new motor vehicle emissions model and (b) a grace period of three months shall apply during which the motor vehicle emissions model previously specified by EPA as the most current version may be used unless EPA announces a longer grace period in the federal register. Conformity analyses for which the analysis was begun during the grace period or no more than three months before the federal register notice of availability of the latest emission model may continue to use the previous version of the model specified by EPA.

(2) For non-motor...