Severstal North America

A division of Pittsburgh-based Kroff Inc. that recycles industrial byproducts has moved its headquarters to a processing and storage facility in Belcamp, the company said Monday. The division, Kroff Materials Reprocessing Inc., had been operating inside Severstal North America's steel plant in Sparrows Point, with Severstal as its landlord and primary client, said Jim Cipollone, general manager of Kroff Materials. The new facility, along the I-95 corridor in Belcamp, was chosen because of its proximity to customers in Maryland, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Virginia and Washington D.C., Cipollone said.

The bankruptcy filing by the owner of Sparrows Point casts yet another cloud over the future of steel-making there, but spokespeople for RG Steel and the Maryland Department of the Environment both say it should have no effect on the cleanup of longstanding toxic contamination there. "RG Steel will continue to meet environmental compliance requirements," company spokeswoman Bette Kovach said by email Thursday.  The company has continued cleanup work begun in 2010 by the mill's previous owner, Severstal North America, pumping and treating contaminated ground water to fulfill the terms of a consent decree with federal and state regulators that was agreed to in 1997 by the mill's original owner, Bethlehem Steel, which later filed for bankruptcy and sold the complex, beginning a series of handovers of the troubled facility.

Ownership of the Sparrows Point steel mill in Baltimore County was officially transferred on Thursday from Severstal North America, a subsidiary of a Russian steel and mining company, to the New York-based Renco Group Inc., company officials said. The Renco Group bought the steel mill, as well as mills in West Virginia and Ohio, in a $1.2 billion deal that was struck earlier this month. Renco has said it plans to bring an unspecified number of workers back to Sparrows Point, after most of the mill's operations were idled in July and nearly 1,000 workers were laid off. The company has said it would resume making steel next month.

The answering machine at RG Steel's Sparrows Point plant hasn't been working much better than the accounts payable department or the sales operation. "Thank you for calling Severstal's Sparrows Point general office," the voice mail prompt said as recently as a few weeks ago, even though Severstal North America hasn't owned the plant since March. Demand for Sparrows' construction steel is miserable. The plant is still scrambling to regain customers that vanished after it was all but mothballed last year.

The primary steel-making operations at Sparrows Point will remain idled for the rest of the year until market conditions improve, the Russian company that owns the Baltimore County mill announced Tuesday. The continued shutdown adds to renewed uncertainty for about 2,500 workers at the plant, which has seen periodic shutdowns and a succession of owners in recent years. Severstal North America, a subsidiary of one of the world's largest steelmakers, is reportedly looking to sell the Maryland mill and other financially strapped U.S. plants.

The bankruptcy filing by the owner of Sparrows Point casts yet another cloud over the future of steel-making there, but spokespeople for RG Steel and the Maryland Department of the Environment both say it should have no effect on the cleanup of longstanding toxic contamination there. "RG Steel will continue to meet environmental compliance requirements," company spokeswoman Bette Kovach said by email Thursday.  The company has continued cleanup work begun in 2010 by the mill's previous owner, Severstal North America, pumping and treating contaminated ground water to fulfill the terms of a consent decree with federal and state regulators that was agreed to in 1997 by the mill's original owner, Bethlehem Steel, which later filed for bankruptcy and sold the complex, beginning a series of handovers of the troubled facility.

The owners of the Sparrows Point shipyard have filed a federal lawsuit accusing the present and former owners of the old Bethlehem Steel mill on the Patapsco River peninsula of contaminating the dock and ship repair facility with cancer-causing benzene and other hazardous chemicals. SPS Limited Partnership and SPS 35, a limited liability corporation, are demanding cleanup and compensation for their own cleanup costs from Severstal North America, the 120-year-old steel mill's current owner, and from Arcelormittal USA, which owned the mill from 2005 until 2008.

The answering machine at RG Steel's Sparrows Point plant hasn't been working much better than the accounts payable department or the sales operation. "Thank you for calling Severstal's Sparrows Point general office," the voice mail prompt said as recently as a few weeks ago, even though Severstal North America hasn't owned the plant since March. Demand for Sparrows' construction steel is miserable. The plant is still scrambling to regain customers that vanished after it was all but mothballed last year.

With all the attention given the Gulf of Mexico oil spill and BP's efforts to reimburse those who have been harmed by the pollution, one might think this was the only example of a poorly regulated industry damaging a critical ecosystem in this country. Sadly, it is not. A lawsuit filed last week by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, the Baltimore Harbor Waterkeeper and a handful of local residents against the current and previous owners of the Sparrows Point steelmaking facilities reflects a much older problem that has gotten much less attention than what's been happening in the Gulf.

To last another century, the Sparrows Point steel mill needs maybe $1 billion invested in new equipment or an act of God that moves Baltimore closer to Detroit and the manufacturing customers there. Which event is more likely to occur is debatable. Ira Rennert, whose Renco Group has agreed to buy Sparrows Point and two other mills owned by Severstal North America, does not have a reputation as a big spender. (On his companies. What he spends on himself is another matter entirely.

Ownership of the Sparrows Point steel mill in Baltimore County was officially transferred on Thursday from Severstal North America, a subsidiary of a Russian steel and mining company, to the New York-based Renco Group Inc., company officials said. The Renco Group bought the steel mill, as well as mills in West Virginia and Ohio, in a $1.2 billion deal that was struck earlier this month. Renco has said it plans to bring an unspecified number of workers back to Sparrows Point, after most of the mill's operations were idled in July and nearly 1,000 workers were laid off. The company has said it would resume making steel next month.

To last another century, the Sparrows Point steel mill needs maybe $1 billion invested in new equipment or an act of God that moves Baltimore closer to Detroit and the manufacturing customers there. Which event is more likely to occur is debatable. Ira Rennert, whose Renco Group has agreed to buy Sparrows Point and two other mills owned by Severstal North America, does not have a reputation as a big spender. (On his companies. What he spends on himself is another matter entirely.

The Russian owner of the Sparrows Point Steel Mill said Wednesday it is selling the Baltimore County plant — once vital to building the company's U.S. footprint and to Maryland's manufacturing industry — to the Renco Group because the business isn't profitable enough. The sale is part of a $1.2 billion transaction, expected to close later this month, that also would transfer Severstal plants in Warren, Ohio, and Wheeling, W.Va., to Renco. The deal would be the fourth ownership change at the plant since Bethlehem Steel declared bankruptcy in 2001.

A division of Pittsburgh-based Kroff Inc. that recycles industrial byproducts has moved its headquarters to a processing and storage facility in Belcamp, the company said Monday. The division, Kroff Materials Reprocessing Inc., had been operating inside Severstal North America's steel plant in Sparrows Point, with Severstal as its landlord and primary client, said Jim Cipollone, general manager of Kroff Materials. The new facility, along the I-95 corridor in Belcamp, was chosen because of its proximity to customers in Maryland, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Virginia and Washington D.C., Cipollone said.

The owners of the Sparrows Point shipyard have filed a federal lawsuit accusing the present and former owners of the old Bethlehem Steel mill on the Patapsco River peninsula of contaminating the dock and ship repair facility with cancer-causing benzene and other hazardous chemicals. SPS Limited Partnership and SPS 35, a limited liability corporation, are demanding cleanup and compensation for their own cleanup costs from Severstal North America, the 120-year-old steel mill's current owner, and from Arcelormittal USA, which owned the mill from 2005 until 2008.

The primary steel-making operations at Sparrows Point will remain idled for the rest of the year until market conditions improve, the Russian company that owns the Baltimore County mill announced Tuesday. The continued shutdown adds to renewed uncertainty for about 2,500 workers at the plant, which has seen periodic shutdowns and a succession of owners in recent years. Severstal North America, a subsidiary of one of the world's largest steelmakers, is reportedly looking to sell the Maryland mill and other financially strapped U.S. plants.

The owner of the steel plant at Sparrows Point has moved to create an industrial-waste landfill on the contaminated Baltimore County peninsula, even as the company takes long-awaited first steps to clean up toxic waste seeping into the outer harbor and tributaries of the Chesapeake Bay. Severstal North America applied last week to the Maryland Department of the Environment to develop a 60-acre landfill adjacent to one of two old waste-disposal mounds...

The Russian owner of the Sparrows Point Steel Mill said Wednesday it is selling the Baltimore County plant — once vital to building the company's U.S. footprint and to Maryland's manufacturing industry — to the Renco Group because the business isn't profitable enough. The sale is part of a $1.2 billion transaction, expected to close later this month, that also would transfer Severstal plants in Warren, Ohio, and Wheeling, W.Va., to Renco. The deal would be the fourth ownership change at the plant since Bethlehem Steel declared bankruptcy in 2001.

This is what progress looks like in cleaning up one of the most polluted industrial sites in the Chesapeake Bay region: A lone pump labors in a rubble-strewn field at Sparrows Point, making soft gasping noises as it siphons a thin stream of oily waste from underground. The pump is one of the first put in by steelmaker Severstal North America to tap the huge plume of contamination underlying the 2,300-acre peninsula in Baltimore's harbor, where the dirty business of making steel has been practiced for more than a century.

With all the attention given the Gulf of Mexico oil spill and BP's efforts to reimburse those who have been harmed by the pollution, one might think this was the only example of a poorly regulated industry damaging a critical ecosystem in this country. Sadly, it is not. A lawsuit filed last week by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, the Baltimore Harbor Waterkeeper and a handful of local residents against the current and previous owners of the Sparrows Point steelmaking facilities reflects a much older problem that has gotten much less attention than what's been happening in the Gulf.