The bankruptcy of New York billionaire Mr Ira Rennert's steel mill has environmental groups hotter than a blast furnace.

Mr Russell Donnelly, an environmentalist in Sparrows Point, the town where the old Bethlehem Steel facility Rennert owns has gone belly up, said that "His company is ducking out of any kind of responsibility again. It became too hot to handle, and his company is moving on. This is the track record. His company has done this all over the planet."

It is the latest salvo by activists that contend the reclusive Mr Rennert, a Brooklyn born industrialist whose USD 185 million, 66,000 square foot compound in Sagaponack is the nation's largest mansion, uses bankruptcies to evade his environmental liabilities.

For instance, Mr Rennert's Utah magnesium mine, MagCorp, declared bankruptcy in 2001 after it was hit with a USD 900 million fine from the Environmental Protection Agency for allegedly dumping chromium, PCBs and other toxins into the Great Salt Lake. After bankruptcy, the company reorganized exempt from previous legal liability but still ultimately owned by Rennert's holding company, Renco.

In 2006, the federal Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation feared it would be stuck with USD 189 million in pension liabilities, so it threatened to confiscate Mr Rennert's mansion through foreclosure.

Renco's South American La Oroya lead mine in Peru has also been subject to numerous environmental criticisms, although the company says it has invested substantially to clean up pollution there.

More recently, Mr Rennert's company RG Steel declared bankruptcy May 31, which environmentalists warn will leave the cleanup of the Sparrows Point site in eastern Maryland in doubt.

Source - New York Post

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