MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company confirmed that it has accepted a proposal to jointly fund a settlement with claimants relating to the 2021 Orange County pipeline oil spill.
On February 9, multiple shipping companies agreed to pay Orange County residents whose businesses and property were damaged by. Currently, the additional terms of a formal settlement are still being negotiated and once reached will have to be approved by the Court.
MSC looks forward to demonstrating in the continuing legal proceedings that the responsibility for the 2021 oil spill remains the responsibility of Amplify, the pipeline owner, who already has plead guilty to criminal negligence for the oil spill.
…the company clarified.
Experts involved in the analysis and reconstruction of key events which led up to the oil spill have determined that the MSC DANIT maneuvered in a reasonable and prudent manner despite adverse weather and intense marine traffic in January 2021, when it is believed that the pipeline was first damaged. Moreover, the MSC DANIT took appropriate actions while at anchor and maintained constant communication with the U.S. Coast Guard and port authorities off the coast of California.
MSC’s investigation has revealed that the pipeline did not comply with its original permit to be built sufficiently away from the federal anchorage zone in which the MSC DANIT and other ships were anchored, and that the negligent conduct of Amplify Energy including its repeated failure to take reasonable preventative steps to better protect its pipeline and detect latent damage was the true cause of the oil spill.
MSC further added that despite becoming aware of increased marine traffic and activity near its pipeline past 2020, Amplify took no measures to mitigate the risk to their pipeline before, during or after January 2021, all of which led to an unnecessary pollution event in Southern California waters and beaches. These facts compelled Amplify to pled guilty to federal and state criminal charges for its discharge of the oil caused by its failure to properly detect and respond to the oil spill.
The Amplify should be the one to pay for the pollution caused if the pipe did not comply with its original permit, which actually was an illegal pipe. The reason is similar incident must occur to such an illegal pipe with some ships which anchors would unexpectedly and accidentally drag. Although very rare, but it is really a kind of navigating ships’ activities, which should be one item to be done in the pipe’s environmental assessment to obtain the permit.
The oil was not from ships but Amplify. Ship would be responsible for those pollution in terms of MARPOL Convention. Amplify is, in this case, the one to be responsible for the pollution under the Clean Water Act because it didn’t take proper preventive measures for the pipe to satisfy the Requirements of the permit and took so unreasonably slow response to discharge unexpected amount of oil. This is also the reason why Amplify pleaded guilty. Of course, the ships would pay for the Amplify’s lost if the pipe were definitely legal. Amplify and its partners and consumers are the ones benefitting from its activities, and the payment for the pollution should be integrating one of their budgets.
Different from the Shipowner and/or Shipping Management Company, this poster thinks that the root cause is the permit issuing agency issued the permit to an illegal pipe, who should be held the majority of the responsibility. This is because there would not be such pollution if the permit were issued to a right one.