Judge: Environmental appeal involving RG Steel can proceed

Associated Press

WILMINGTON, Del.

A Delaware bankruptcy judge ruled Tuesday that environmentalists can proceed with a federal court appeal in a dispute involving water quality monitoring at an RG Steel facility near Baltimore.

RG Steel, the nation’s fourth-largest flat-rolled steel manufacturer, sought bankruptcy protection in late May, citing financial struggles with low steel prices and high raw material costs. RG Steel has a plant in the Valley located in Warren.

Bankruptcy filings routinely bring a halt to all litigation involving the debtor, but environmentalists asked U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Kevin Carey to lift the automatic stay in RG Steel’s case so they could proceed with an appeal filed just a few weeks before the company’s bankruptcy filing.

After a brief hearing Tuesday, Carey granted the motion by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Blue Water Baltimore Inc. and others for permission to pursue their appeal.

Carey said there was nothing in the record presented to him to suggest that allowing the appeal to proceed would interfere in any significant way with RG Steel’s bankruptcy case or its plans to sell the Sparrows Point steel mill just outside Baltimore.

The appeal challenges the approval by a federal judge in Maryland of an agreement between RG Steel and government regulators regarding water-quality monitoring near the Sparrows Point steel mill outside Baltimore. Environmentalists say the scope of the monitoring is too narrow.

After a lengthy dispute over monitoring for toxic contaminants at the Sparrows Point site, RG Steel reached an agreement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Maryland environmental regulators late last year requiring the company to sample sediments no more than 50 feet offshore.

Environmentalists contend that contaminants have been found much farther offshore and that the scope of the monitoring agreement should be expanded.