The US Department of Justice announced that the Norwegian Company Det Stavangerske Dampskibsselskab AS (DSD Shipping) and three employees have been convicted of violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships (APPS)
DSD Shipping is a Norwegian-based shipping company that operates crude oil tankers, including the M/T Stavanger Blossom. Also convicted at trial were three senior engineering officers. A fourth employee pleaded guilty in October.
“We will not tolerate the continued use of the world’s oceans as a dumping ground for contaminated waste,” said Assistant Attorney General Cruden.
“These defendants deliberately and egregiously violated the law and fouled the marine environment by dumping waste, then tried to cover it up with false records. We hope this conviction sends a strong message to shippers worldwide that this activity must end, and we will vigorously prosecute those who continue this criminal behavior.”
“I am pleased with the record of this office in pursuing environmental crimes,” said U.S. Attorney Brown. “We will continue to prosecute corporations and individuals to protect our resources here along the Gulf Coast as well as around the World. We need to ensure that all foreign vessels and corporations comply with U.S. Coast Guard Examinations to ensure these resources are protected.”
The evidence presented during the two-week trial demonstrated that in January 2010, DSD Shipping knew that the oily-water separator aboard the M/T Stavanger Blossom was inoperable. In an internal corporate memo, DSD Shipping noted that the device could not properly filter oil-contaminated waste water and stated that individuals “could get caught for polluting” if the problem was not addressed. Rather than repair or replace the oily-water separator, however, DSD Shipping used various methods to bypass the device and force the discharge of oily-wastes into the ocean. During the last months of the vessel’s operation prior to its arrival in the Port of Mobile, the M/T Stavanger Blossom discharged approximately 20,000 gallons of oil-contaminated waste water.
The evidence at trial also established that DSD Shipping employees intentionally discharged fuel oil sludge directly into the ocean. Specifically, crewmembers cleaned the vessel’s fuel oil sludge tank, removed approximately 264 gallons of sludge and placed the waste oil into plastic garbage bags. After hiding the sludge bags aboard the ship from port authorities in Mexico, the defendants ordered crewmembers to move as many as 100 sludge bags to the deck of the vessel. There, they threw the sludge bags overboard directly into the ocean.
DSD Shipping and its engineering officers all attempted to hide these discharges from the U.S. Coast Guard by making false and fictitious entries in the vessel’s oil record book and garbage record book. Further, after arriving in Mobile, two defendants lied to the U.S. Coast Guard about the discharge of sludge and ordered lower ranking crewmembers to do the same.
Source: The US Department of Justice
In the starting, I was forthright with you propecia before and after has changed my existence. It has become much more fun, and now I have to run. Just as it is fabulous to sit.
