Zeaborn unit agrees to pay $2m fine for dumping oily bilge and garbage at sea

A unit of Zeaborn Ship Management has pleaded guilty to recordkeeping violations associated with dumping oily bilge water and garbage at sea.

Zeaborn Ship Management (Singapore) agreed to pay of $2m for maintaining false and incomplete records on the 50,700-dwt open hatch carrier Star Maia (built 1998), the US Justice Department said.

The company pleaded guilty in a US federal court in San Diego to two felony violations of the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships, a law that codifies International Maritime Organization environmental rules.

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Chief engineer Constancio Estuye and the ship’s master, Alexander Parreno, also pleaded guilty to one felony count each.

The Justice Department said that Estuye and Zeaborn admitted that on four occasions between June and October of last year, some 7,500 gallons (28,000 litres) of oil bilge water were dumped from the Star Maia.

The discharges were falsely recorded as processed through the ship’s pollution prevention equipment.

Zeaborn and Parreno admitted to burning garbage on three or four occasions in the same time frame. The trash, including paper, plastics and oil rags, was torched in barrels on the Star Maia’s deck and then thrown into the ocean without being logged on the ship’s garbage record book, prosecutors said.

“Illegally dumping oily waste and garbage at sea poses a serious threat to the health and viability of the marine environment,” said assistant attorney general Todd Kim, who works in the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division.

“This prosecution demonstrates our commitment to ensuring that those who violate environmental laws are held accountable for their criminal conduct.”

As part of the guilty plea, Zeaborn will pay $1.5m in fines and a community service payment of $500,000 that the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation plans to spend on projects around the Tijuana River National Estuarine Research Reserve in Southern California.

The company also agreed to probation that will require it to adhere to an environmental compliance plan for any of its ships that call at US ports.

The case is being prosecuted by senior trial attorney Stephen Da Ponte of the Justice Department’s Environmental Crimes Section and assistant US Attorney Melanie Pierson.

Court records show Zeaborn is represented by Joseph Walsh of Collier Walsh Nakazawa. Michael Zweiback of Zweiback, Fiset & Zalduendo represents Estuye, while Chalos & Co’s George Chalos represents Parreno.

Sentencing is scheduled for 1 December.