* From the US Environmental Protection Agency…

On January 4, 2022, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) found that certain state and local air pollution control agencies failed to submit State Implementation Plan (SIP) revisions to appropriately address excess emissions during periods of startup, shutdown, and malfunction (SSM)

Illinois is one of the states currently out of compliance and faces an August 12 deadline or risk losing federal highway funds. The state has been working at least since last year to implement new administrative rules. The issue dates back decades, but a court ruled in 2008 that the US EPA’s rules were out of compliance with federal law and, in turn, the US EPA has been telling the state EPA to change its own rules since 2015. But then the feds watered down the requirement during the Trump administration. The Biden administration, however, has renewed the push.

* All of that is explained, and more, in this Capitol News Illinois story…

Illinois faces a deadline next month to either change the way it enforces air pollution emission limits on heavy industries or face federal sanctions that could eventually result in restricted access to billions of dollars in federal highway funding. […]

If the state does not come into compliance by Aug. 12, EPA will impose what are called “offset sanctions,” meaning any new or significantly modified sources of pollution for which a permit is required will come under significantly stricter emission limits.

And if the state does not comply by Feb. 11, 2024, its access to federal highway funds will be restricted to safety projects, capital programs for public transit and a select few other categories of funding.

Those sanctions would be lifted once the U.S. EPA determines the state has submitted an acceptable new SIP.

Because of the looming deadline, the rule change has been put on a “fast track” schedule, but that has irritated industry officials who say they haven’t had enough time to submit comments or try to negotiate an agreement.

* Speaking of highway funding, while road and bridge repairs are important, they’re also quite visible, which is one reason why politicians love to tout them. Sewer and water systems, however, are in dire need of repair and are often therefore neglected by governments. This Tribune story, “Costly Deep Tunnel flooding project can’t handle Chicago area’s severe storms fueled by climate change,” by Michael Hawthorne and Adriana Pérez about the recent Chicago-area flooding is definitely worth reading in its entirety, but here are a couple of excerpts…

Flood losses in the city and suburbs cost taxpayers $1.8 billion in subsidized grants, loans and insurance payments between 2004 and 2014, according to a 2019 report from the National Academy of Sciences. Only hurricane-ravaged areas of coastal Louisiana, New York and Texas received more federal flood aid during the decade.

Scientists who study flooding say the costs likely were significantly higher.

Computer models developed by the city can track down to the block level which neighborhoods are most at risk. Like so many other societal ills, the consequences hit the poorest Chicagoans the hardest. After a major storm in 2013, city officials determined the damages were concentrated in low- and middle-income census tracts on the West and South sides, similar to where many 311 calls originated after the more recent storms.

However…

Under a legal settlement with environmental groups, the district is obligated to expand the McCook Reservoir. A neighboring hard-rock quarry will be added to the existing retention basin by 2029, increasing storage to 10 billion gallons, up from 3.5 billion gallons today.

Maybe that could be expedited?