The environmental activist probably best remembered for leading the fight to clean up the infamous Sydney tar ponds in Nova Scotia has died.

Bruno Marcocchio, who believed the remnants of the steel industry in Cape Breton were a danger to people's health and safety, died of cancer on Wednesday, according to family.

He was 75.

Elizabeth May, the federal Green Party leader, was executive director of the Sierra Club of Canada and worked with Marcocchio, who was Atlantic conservation director for the …