By Brian Wright | TriValley Central
Wednesday’s meeting of the Pinal County Board of Supervisors was a great example of why the issue with an air quality monitor near Maricopa is so hard to understand.
Even the people tasked with knowing every detail about air quality and the Environmental Protection Agency are dumbfounded when it comes to ascertaining what is expected from the EPA.
Pinal County must move its air quality monitor, called the Cowtown monitor, in order to have a better chance of achieving “attainment” status in its PM10 and PM2.5 monitors. Problem is, the people closest to the situation are frustrated and baffled by how to proceed.
Apparently, EPA guidelines on such a process are as clear as the dirt in the cattle feedlot adjacent to the Cowtown monitor, located just south of Maricopa near the Maricopa-Casa Grande Highway.
Don Gabrielson, director of the county air quality division, told the supervisors that sometimes dealing with the EPA seems futile.
