A shipping company was convicted of violating anti-pollution laws and ordered to pay a $1.5 million fine Thursday after a vessel dumped oily wastewater off the coast of Africa.
Clipper Shipping A.S. kept the dumping out of legally required records regarding oil discharge and was convicted of falsifying records as well.
The Justice Department said the Clipper Saturn’s head engineer between Sept. 27-Oct. 1, 2021, ordered piping to be removed and to use a hose to move oily bilge water from the hull into the ship’s wastewater tank. The waste water was then dumped directly overboard in the dark. The motor tanker was anchored off the coast near Lome, the capital of Togo, at the time.
Once the dumping was finished, the piping was re-installed and painted over to hide the evidence of removal and reinstallation.
But the deception was discovered when the Clipper Saturn was reinspected in Houston by the Coast Guard.
“To put it simply, Clipper Saturn wanted to get rid of dirty oily water from their ship. Instead of filtering out the hazardous elements, as required, they decided to cut costs and just release the whole contaminated mess into the sea,” U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas Alamdar Hamdani said.
In addition to the fine, nine of Clipper Shipping’s vessels will be subject to independent auditing and monitoring. Enhancement of pollution prevention systems on the ships will be required.
• Brad Matthews can be reached at bmatthews@washingtontimes.com.
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