Japan’s Nitta Kisen Kaisha is to pay $1m in fines for flouting strict US anti-pollution laws, the US Justice Department has confirmed.
On Thursday it was convicted and sentenced for obstruction of justice and falsification of an oil record book to cover-up intentional oil pollution.
The Kobe-based shipowner admitted that its engineers failed to document the illegal discharge of oily wastes from fuel and lubrication oil purifier systems of the 33,500-dwt Atlantic Oasis (built 2011) as well as discharges of oily bilge waste from the bilge holding tank and from its bilges.
The ship’s prior chief engineer, Jihnyun Youn, had previously been convicted and sentenced for falsification of the vessel’s oil record book.
During a US Coast Guard (USCG) inspection of the vessel in May 2017, a junior engineering crewmember tipped off inspectors about how the oily wastes were being discharged by the order of chief engineer Youn.
He also showed USCG inspectors where the hoses that were used for the discharges were hidden. Youn is said to have lied to the inspectors about the existence of a sounding log, which is typically used to record the fluid levels of various tanks in the engine room.
By the end of the inspection, Youn is said to have admitted to ordering the illegal discharges and admitted that there was a sounding log.
In addition to the fine Nitta was also placed on probation for a period of three years; and further ordered to implement a court-approved comprehensive environmental compliance plan as a special condition of probation.
“While the charges in this case rest on the failure of the ship’s crew to properly document the discharge of oily bilge waste, the heart of this case is the illegal discharge itself and the damage that action did to our environment waterways,” said US attorney Robert J. Higdon Jr. for the Eastern District of North Carolina.
“We trust that the fines and penalties imposed in this case will act as a deterrent to anyone who would treat our environment as a dumping-ground.”
