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15  Have engines that meet either US EPA or California Air Resources Board (CARB) Tier 4 Interim emission standards and ensure that all construction plans clearly show the selected emission reduction strategy for construction equipment over 25 horsepower” (p. 4‐18). However, the inclusion of Tier 4 Interim mitigation remains unsupported for two reasons. First, the EPA does not explicitly require local land use projects to use off‐road construction equipment meeting Tier 4 Interim emissions standards. In order to ensure that the Project uses Tier 4 Interim equipment, the City would therefore need to include a specific mitigation measure to this effect. Furthermore, the inclusion of Tier 4 interim mitigation, based on the Project’s vague compliance with EPA policies, is unsupported. According to the Association of Environmental Professionals (“AEP”) CEQA Portal Topic Paper on mitigation measures: “By definition, mitigation measures are not part of the original project design. Rather, mitigation measures are actions taken by the lead agency to reduce impacts to the environment resulting from the original project design. Mitigation measures are identified by the lead agency after the project has undergone environmental review and are above‐and‐beyond existing laws, regulations, and requirements that would reduce environmental impacts” (emphasis added).26 As you can see in the excerpt above, mitigation measures “are not part of the original project design” and are intended to go “above‐and‐beyond” existing regulatory requirements. As such, the inclusion of these measures, based solely on EPA policies, does not constitute adequate mitigation. Second, according to the above‐mentioned AEP report: “While not “mitigation”, a good practice is to include those project design feature(s) that address environmental impacts in the mitigation monitoring and reporting program (MMRP). Often the MMRP is all that accompanies building and construction plans through the permit process. If the design features are not listed as important to addressing an environmental impact, it is easy for someone not involved in the original environmental process to approve a change to the project that could eliminate one or more of the design features without understanding the resulting environmental impact” (emphasis added).27 As you can see in the excerpts above, measures that are not formally included in the mitigation monitoring and reporting program (“MMRP”) may be eliminated from the Project’s design altogether. Thus, as the use of Tier 4 Interim construction equipment is not formally included as a mitigation measure, we cannot guarantee that Tier 4 Interim emission standards would be implemented, monitored, and enforced on the Project site. Thus, the model’s assumption that the entire off‐road construction equipment fleet would meet Tier 4 Interim emissions standards is incorrect. The impacts 26 “CEQA Portal Topic Paper Mitigation Measures.” AEP, February 2020, available at: https://ceqaportal.org/tp/CEQA%20Mitigation%202020.pdf, p. 5. 27 “CEQA Portal Topic Paper Mitigation Measures.” AEP, February 2020, available at: https://ceqaportal.org/tp/CEQA%20Mitigation%202020.pdf, p. 6. 130