The air-quality partnership between the city of Plano and the University of Texas at Dallas has been extended until December 2021.
This extension to the agreement, initially termed to end in January 2021, will allow for the university to perform field tests on the 44 air-quality monitors built for Plano. Without field testing, the monitors could be placed in Plano but would not have been calibrated properly for accuracy and reliability, staff shared in a memo for the Nov. 23 Plano City Council meeting.
The process of placing and calibrating these monitors was delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic, the memo shared.
The city of Plano first entered into the agreement with UT Dallas in April 2019. A number of North Texas stakeholders have also partnered with the university to create a real-time regional air-quality monitoring network, as the region is currently not in compliance with the Clean Air Act, staff shared.
