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April 6, 2004
JAPANESE SHIPPING COMPANY PLEADS GUILTY AND IS
SENTENCED IN PACIFIC OCEAN OIL POLLUTION CASE
MMS Co. Is Latest Shipping Company to Face
Multimillion Dollar Fines For Dumping Oil Wastes
MMS Co., Ltd., a Japanese ship management company, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court yesterday to four felony charges for failing to follow federal water pollution prevention laws by routinely dumping oily wastewater from one of its ships. MMS was sentenced to pay two million dollars in fines.
MMS admitted to charges brought by United States Attorneys in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Portland, Oregon. MMS entered the guilty pleas yesterday in United States District Court in Portland to resolve the charges in all districts. The cases filed in San Francisco and Los Angeles alleged that MMS failed to accurately maintain oil pollution records onboard the M/V Spring Drake.
According to the plea agreement and information, MMS operates the Spring Drake, a 27,000 gross ton bulk cargo ship that sails under a Panamanian flag. Large ships such as the Spring Drake generate waste oil from a variety of sources, including the process used to purify the heavy fuel oil that powers the ship. Like other ships of its size, the Spring Drake has equipment, including an "oil water separator," to process oil wastes. Federal and international laws require that oily water be processed through the oily water separator so that any water discharged into the sea contains no more than 15 parts per million of oil. In addition to maintaining equipment such as the oily water separator, United States law requires ships like the Spring Drake to maintain an "Oil Record Book" that documents all transfers of oil on the ship, including discharges to the sea.
In pleading guilty, MMS admitted that crew members on the Spring Drake, operating under the authority of the ship's chief engineer, used a bypass device called a "magic pipe" that allowed them to pump inadequately treated oil-contaminated wastewater directly into the ocean.
The Spring Drake was in Portland on January 30, 2004, picking up a load of wheat. A routine inspection by the United States Coast Guard revealed evidence that the ship was violating international ocean pollution regulations. Over the past year, the Spring Drake had made port calls in Alameda and Long Beach, California.
On February 5, 2004, a federal grand jury in Portland indicted MMS; Grus Line Shipping SA, a Panama company and the owner of the Spring Drake; and Shashank Pendse, a resident of India and the chief engineer of the Spring Drake. On March 8, 2004, Mr. Pendse pleaded guilty to a felony charge of knowingly failing to accurately record discharges and disposals of oily wastes in the ship's Oil Record Book, and he was sentenced to 30 days in federal prison. Today's guilty pleas resolve the case against the two corporate entities.
As part of the global plea agreement in this case, MMS has agreed to pay a total of two million dollars in fines. The fine attributable to the San Francisco case will be $500,000, half of which will be placed in "Northern Coastal California Restoration Fund," a fund which will be administered by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, which was created by Congress to benefit the conservation of fish, wildlife, plants, and the habitats on which they depend. The Northern Coastal California Restoration Fund was created in March, 2004 to receive monies to be used to conserve fish, wildlife, plants, and the habitats on which they depend in the Northern California Bay Area.
In addition to the criminal fines, MMS has agreed to adopt, implement and fund an Environmental Management System/Compliance Plan to prevent future environmental pollution by MMS's ships.
This case is the latest in a series of cases brought by the United States Attorneys Offices on the West Coast as part of a coordinated vessel pollution initiative. The initiative involves cooperation among the United States Attorneys Offices, the United States Coast Guard, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Washington Department of Ecology.
For further information, please contact:
San Francisco
Attorney United States Attorney Matthew J. Jacobs
(415) 436-7181
Los Angeles
Assistant United States Attorney William W. Carter
(213) 894-3547
Assistant United States Attorney Dorothy Kim
(213) 894-3779
Portland
Assistant United States Attorney Robert Ross
(503) 727-1023
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