Allegheny County's air pollution advisory committee is opposing action by the Board of Health to spend money from the county Clean Air Fund to remove 15 steel-making stoves containing asbestos from the former U.S. Steel site in Duquesne.

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The committee voted at a meeting Tuesday evening to send a letter to the health board outlining its reasons for opposing the grant. The letter has yet to be written, but might ask the board to reconsider.

"To say that it was unanimous is almost understated," said Kate St. John, an advisory committee alternate member who voted on the proposal. "No one had a good word to say about this idea."

Usually, the committee reviews requests for grants from the fund, which consists of fines collected from air polluters, before the health board votes on them. But two weeks ago, county manager and health board member James Flynn persuaded the health board to grant $1.3 million of the $7.4 million in the fund to the county's Department of Economic Development for the Duquesne project.

Removal of the inactive stoves, which contain asbestos, will further the development of the brownfield site, he said. When they are gone, an existing street can be linked to a "flyover" access ramp that workers will begin constructing in mid-2006.

Environmental activists spoke out against the plan at the health board meeting, and did so again at the advisory committee meeting.

The county Health Department would be paying the Regional Industrial Development Corp., the site owner, to fulfill its obligation to remove asbestos, said Myron Arnowitt, Western Pennsylvania director for Clean Water Action.

He and others were pleased that the advisory committee opposed the grant.

"I hope it sends a clear message to the Board of Health and to the community," said Rachel Filippini, executive director of the Group Against Smog and Pollution. "It's a bad use of Clean Air Funds."

Ms. St. John, who is a GASP board member, called the recent events "highly unusual" because typically proposals for use of Clean Air Fund monies go first to the advisory committee.

Members get ample advance notice, there is plenty of paperwork and e-mails are exchanged, and many conversations take place between the applicant and the committee, she said.

"And the bigger the amount [requested], the more discussion," Ms. St. John said. "This just went through unbelievably quickly."

Also, the two-page letter committee members received about the project provided no details explaining how the $1.3 million would be spent, she said. Mr. Flynn did not attend the advisory committee meeting.

Mr. Arnowitt has been taking his concerns to County Council members, but it's not clear that they will get a say in whether the use is appropriate.

Kevin Evanto, county communications director, said that neither County Council nor the chief executive has the authority to stop the grant.

"The party that has the ultimate decision regarding the Clean Air Fund grant is actually the board of health," he said.

The board must consult the advisory committee before issuing a grant, but need not heed its advice. The board's next meeting is in January.