The Palmetto Air Quality Collaborative (PAQC) is a 4-year planning initiative to develop innovative strategies to reduce greenhouse gases and air pollution in South Carolina.

This initiative intends to lay the groundwork for lowering air emissions, engaging communities, and supporting workforce and economic development opportunities.

The PAQC is co-led by the SC Office of Resilience and SC Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) and is funded through the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Climate Pollution Reduction Grant program.

The PAQC is encouraging potential stakeholders to provide input about emissions reduction priorities, current activities and concerns. Survey available here https://survey123.arcgis.com/share/e37dcb0870d74a6fa11481d23e19661e. However please respond by Dec. 22, 2023, to ensure your feedback is considered for the first set of deadlines.

The Priority Climate Action Plan (PCAP) is due March 1, 2024. The PCAP will include a statewide greenhouse gas inventory and proposed measures to reduce emissions and air pollution.

Implementation grant applications are due April 1, 2024. The EPA Climate Pollution Reduction Grant program is offering competitive grants for states, regional agencies, municipalities and tribes to implement reduction measures and plans.

On Aug. 16, 2022, the Inflation Reduction Act was signed into law, establishing funding for greenhouse gas planning and implementation efforts. The EPA was authorized to establish the Climate Pollution Reduction Grant (CPRG), with South Carolina being one of 46 states to accept funding. The Columbia and Greenville-Spartanburg Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) also received funding.

Phase I of the CPRG provided states with $3 million and MSAs with $1 million. Phase II will provide $4.6 billion nationwide in competitive implementation grants. The SC Office of Resilience and SC DHEC are partnering as co-leads for this grant.

The PAQC Intergovernmental and Interagency Coordination Group is comprised of the SC Office of Resilience, SC DHEC, SC Energy Office and other state agencies. Representatives from South Carolina’s 10 councils of government, Association of Counties, and the Municipal Association will be invited to participate as well.

Upper Savannah Council of Governments provides a wide scope of services and performs many functions. This activities report highlights this information and offers us the chance to regularly communicate our general activities in your county with you. Download the September 2023 report here.

“The goal is that everyone gets home safely every day,” says highway safety engineer Scott Himes, who is assisting the Upper Savannah COG in a pilot project to help make rural roads safer.

The Upper Savannah Council of Governments Roadway Departure Safety Implementation Plan (RwDSIP) is currently in the development stage. It is one of the first plans of its kind to attempt to address rural roadway safety.

Carolyn Fisher, safety and traffic operations engineer with the S.C. Division of the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), said at a statewide meeting in July 2022 that because South Carolina has such a high rate of fatal accidents, the state is eligible for extra help.

Upper Savannah Government Services Director Rick Green was attending that meeting and accepted the offer.

The FHWA then hired consulting firm VHB out of Raleigh, N.C., to study rural crashes in the Upper Savannah Region of Abbeville, Edgefield, Greenwood, Laurens, McCormick and Saluda counties.

Himes is leading the study and spoke to USCOG transportation stakeholders at a meeting at the Greenwood Genetic Center Aug. 29.

“The idea is if you get in a crash (on a rural road), you will walk away,” Himes said of the intended results of the plan.

VHB is developing a plan that will likely be completed this fall for the Upper Savannah Region, which is leading the way for the state and nation.

“It will be a template that other councils of government (COGs) here in South Carolina and maybe around the country can use,” Green said. “We are among the first regions that the Federal Highways Administration has used (the others are three Department of Transportation districts in Texas).”

Himes and FHWA Safety Engineer Joseph Cheung addressed the USCOG Board of Directors on Aug. 28. Some of those same COG Board members as well as transportation planners from some other SC COGs and other transportation officials attended the meeting on the 29th.

What they learned at these meetings is that roadway departure crashes in the Upper Savannah Region are random and sporadic in location but consistent in number of accidents per year.

So Himes is recommending a systemic approach in the Upper Savannah Region, deploying countermeasures on roads with the highest risks for fatal or serious injuries whether they have commonly occurred there or not.

Countermeasures can include pavement friction treatments for better tire grip, shoulder or center line rumble strips, clear zones (an unobstructed traversable roadside area), signage, reflective signs or markings, guardrails, widening of shoulders, etc., all steps that can help drivers stay on the road.

Another discovery from the study is that 42 percent of the roadway departure crashes with death or serious injury in the Region involved unbelted drivers. “If people would just wear seat belts, forty percent of those deaths might have been prevented,” Green said.

Roadway departure safety plans tailored to other COG regions might focus more on accident “hot spots,” Himes said.

Green is eager to see the completed version of the Upper Savannah RwDSIP.

“Ultimately we will have a nice roadway departure safety plan and be able to work with local and state Department of Transportation offices to see if we can address the problems that are out there,” Green said.

Upper Savannah Council of Governments provides a wide scope of services and performs many functions. This activities report highlights this information and offers us the chance to regularly communicate our general activities in your county with you. Download the June 2023 report here.

Upper Savannah Region counties and municipalities are eligible to apply for funding through a grant program announced by the Southeast Crescent Regional Commission.

This cycle of the State Economic and Infrastructure Development (SEID) Grant Program will fund projects that revitalize and transform communities, spurring economic development in parts of Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia.

Click https://scrc.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/SCRC-SEID-Grant-NOFA-06082023-release.pdf for more details.

The program is designed to invest in critical infrastructure including expanding basic water and sewer, increasing access to affordable and reliable digital infrastructure, and supporting transportation infrastructure and transit services.

The program is also designed to improve health and support services access and outcomes, promote workforce development programs, foster entrepreneurial and business development activities, expand affordable housing stock and access, and promote environmental, conservation, preservation and access to increase outdoor recreation and tourism opportunities.

Funding amounts will range from $50,000 to $500,000 and a match will be required. The match amount will depend on the economic distress level of the county as determined by the Southeast Crescent Regional Commission.

The pre-application portal will open June 19 and will be due July 21, and full application portal will open Aug. 7 with grant application due Sept. 15, 2023. Project awards will be announced Nov. 14, 2023.