At the close of business today, there has been no information coming from official (or unofficial) sources on the outcome of today’s auction of the Sparrows Point and Warren steel mills.

Both properties were set to be sold today to the highest bidder or bidders at an auction conducted at the Manhattan offices of Willkie Farr & Gallagher, RG Steel’s bankruptcy lawyers.

The law firm said it would not comment, while no documents about the auction have appeared on the docket of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington.

Meanwhile, Maryland Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler filed this afternoon an objection to the sale of Sparrows Point because the bankruptcy proceeding “is currently believed to be silent” regarding the buyer’s obligations to comply with a 1997 environmental consent decree.

The Maryland Department of the Environment entered into the decree, when the property was owned by Bethlehem Steel Corp., with the federal Environmental Protection Agency.

Environmental Obligations of Buyer?

“The consent decree imposes an obligation before transfer of the property to notify EPA and MDE of an expected transfer, to provide in the transfer for the fulfillment of ‘all requirement of the decree . . . including but not limited to all work to be performed and access provisions,’” Gansler wrote.

“As of this writing, MDE has not had the opportunity to review the actual sales documents,” the filing continued. “If, upon review of the actual sales documents for all or any portion of the Sparrows Point Assets, MDE has further objections to the terms of the sale, it reserves the right to make those objections and to supplement this filing.”

Last week, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a similar objection to the sale of Sparrows Point and RG Steel’s Warren, Ohio, mill on behalf of EPA, MDE and the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency.

DOJ said the U.S. government reserves the right “to object to the sale of contaminated property to any purchaser unless it is financially and otherwise capable of performing cleanup and taking other steps required under environmental laws to protect the public from hazardous conditions at the facilities.”

The Warren mill was also scheduled to be sold at today’s auction, but there has been no information so far on bids or bidders.