By Brian Wright | Casa Grande Dispatch
After agreeing to only a month- to-month lease for nearly all of 2013, Pinal County officials have now signed a two-year lease to keep an air quality monitor at a site near Maricopa until a suitable alternate site is approved.
The Cowtown monitor, located south of Maricopa and across the Maricopa-Casa Grande Highway from a cattle feedlot, has been deemed in “nonattainment” by the Environmental Protection Agency for its PM10 readings.
The monitor sits on property owned by development company El Dorado Holdings.
In October, that firm asked the county to terminate the lease because it wanted the monitor off its property. The lease was terminated in November.
Last Wednesday, the Pinal County Board of Supervisors agreed to sign a new lease agreement with El Dorado to keep the monitor at its current site for another two years.