Allegheny County’s Board of Health on Wednesday approved allocating $4,148,605 in grant money toward projects aimed at improving the region’s air quality. The money comes from the county’s Clean Air Fund, which collects penalties paid by plants and companies that pollute.
The county will support 11 projects ranging from tree planting to electrification of municipal vehicle fleets. The projects were selected from a batch of 58 applicants, according to Ian Anderson, the environmental health administrator for the county’s Bureau of Environmental Health. Preference was given to communities that experience a disproportionate number of harmful effects from pollution, such as the Mon Valley.
The approval comes roughly two weeks after the county’s air advisory committee recommended the approval of most of the projects. The committee tabled its recommendation for projects under a category loosely described as “climate resiliency.”
Anderson said that category was intentionally open ended.
“We wanted to give organizations, companies, municipalities, a little more [of an] option to come to us with an idea about how to offset air pollution production and what they could do to improve their communities in the face of climate change,” he told the board Wednesday.
The committee said it needed more information about whether the projects under this category would be worth what it costs to complete them. The advisory committee tabled their recommendation on the category, but did not recommend against it. Though the Board of Health considers the committee’s recommendations, board members have the final word.
Of the six board members present, four voted in favor of approving the expenditures and two abstained from voting. Joylette Portlock and Anthony Ferraro said they felt they needed more information about how the projects were selected.
Here are the 11 projects that will receive Clean Air Fund grants:
- Sharpsburg Borough: $1,000,000 to install solar panels and a battery storage system to offset the electricity usage at borough buildings and continue operations during a power outage.
- Etna Borough: $500,000 to rehabilitate the police and public works office building to mitigate flood risk, install solar panels and plant trees.
- West Mifflin Borough: $997,450 to support the installation of a battery storage system to support solar and battery power at public facilities
- Swissvale Borough: $800,000 to buy an electric street sweeper
- Plum Borough School District: $423,000 to buy two dozen electric school buses and six electric vehicle charging stations
- Munhall Borough: $186,789 to buy three electric garbage trucks and a charging station
- The boroughs of Braddock, North Braddock, Rankin and East Pittsburgh: $75,000 to purchase electric lawnmowers
- Pitcairn Borough: $43,272 to purchase electric landscaping equipment and chainsaws
- Brackenridge Borough: $23,094 to purchase electric landscaping equipment and chainsaws
- Wilkinsburg Shade Tree Committee: $50,000 to plant 50 trees in Wilkinsburg
- Western Pennsylvania Conservancy: $50,000 to plant 45 trees in Mon Valley communities
In September, county officials raised concerns about whether anyone would apply for the grant money, as no applications were received roughly a week before the deadline.
The Clean Air Fund was also criticized earlier this year by the County Controller’s office which found that only a small portion of the $10 million fund balance had been spent between 2021 and the early part of 2023. County Controller Corey O’Connor argued in May that the fund had fallen “far short” of meeting its mission at the current pace of investment.
O’Connor could not be reached for comment Wednesday about the newly funded projects.
Despite public hearings and direct solicitation from the county, some clean air advocates argue the grant process is still too complicated. In September, PennEnvironment clean air advocate Zach Barber told WESA that the application process can be burdensome.
“This has been a perpetual struggle for Allegheny County, specifically with these clean air funds, [to] effectively get them out into the community,” he said.
“The funding cycles can kind of come up without much warning,” Barber said. “And that kind of leaves municipalities or community groups then kind of scrambling to get their application together.”
The county health department seems to be keeping that criticism in mind. Health Department Director Dr. Iulia Vann said officials will award additional grants from the Clean Air Fund early next year for projects located in the Mon Valley. She told board members Wednesday that she plans to extend the timeframe for applications to give communities more time to prepare their proposals.
“We're really dedicating our time and effort into enhancing the community engagement that we're doing in order for our partners to feel ready to apply for these funds,” she said. The county wants to “make sure that those projects are really what those communities need the most.”
