An environmental activist group is suing to stop Allegheny County from spending $1.3 million from a Health Department clean air fund for redevelopment of a former steel mill site in Duquesne.

Tomorrow, Common Pleas Judge Judith L.A. Friedman is expected to set a date to hear the request for a preliminary and permanent injunction, which was filed Monday by the Group Against Smog and Pollution.

"We think it's very clear-cut when you look at the regulations that this has been an inappropriate request from the Board of Health," said Elizabeth Rosemeyer, GASP's outreach coordinator.

In a November meeting, county Manager Jim Flynn asked his fellow health board members to approve a $1.3 million expenditure from the Clean Air Fund for demolition of 15 inactive, asbestos-containing stoves on what was a U.S. Steel plant.

That would permit the next phase of redevelopment of the site, Mr. Flynn said at the time, and he added that the grant could be a "pilot project" or "test case" for future Clean Air Fund disbursements for redevelopment of brownfields.

The board unanimously approved the grant, the largest in the fund's history, but representatives from GASP and Clean Water Action immediately questioned the legality of the decision.

Clean Air Fund regulations say that the money is to be used for projects like developing air pollution control technology, monitoring, education and health studies, Ms. Rosemeyer said.

The regulations also restrict funds from being given to permitted sources. The stoves are now inactive, but developers will need a Health Department permit when they tear them down and remove the asbestos.

"In a way, you're paying the source to do what they are obligated to do under the law," Ms. Rosemeyer said. Regional Industrial Development Corp. owns the site, but the funds would be disbursed through an arm of the county's Department of Economic Development.

The county's air pollution advisory committee unanimously opposed the grant a few weeks later. Typically, the committee reviews and comments on fund applications before the health board deliberates.

Mr. Luneberg said his client is asking for an injunction to stop the county not only from disbursing funds in this case, but in any case where the money would be spent on an economic development project.

The Clean Air Fund was established in 1980 and is made up of fines and penalties from air pollution violators. It currently has about $7 million in it, said health department spokesman Guillermo Cole.