Greek vessel operator Zeus Lines Management has been fined in the US after admitting “environmental crimes” involving an MR tanker.
The master and chief engineer of the 50,000-dwt Galissas (built 2008) also pleaded guilty in a case involving maintaining false and incomplete records relating to the discharge of oily bilge water and failing to report a hazardous condition off Rhode Island, the Department of Justice said.
Sentencing will take place in Providence on 8 August.
The guilty men were named as captain Jose Ervin Mahigne Porquez and chief engineer Roberto Cayabyab Penaflor.
According to court documents, Zeus and Penaflor admitted that oily bilge water was illegally dumped from the Galissas directly into the ocean without being properly processed through required pollution prevention equipment.
They admitted not recording the discharges.
The Department said this happened on three separate occasions between November 2021 and February 2022.
Penaflor ordered crew members working for him in the engine room to discharge a total of approximately 9,544 gallons of oily bilge water from the vessel’s bilge holding tank directly into the ocean.
In addition, in preparation for the US Coast Guard’s inspection of the Galissas, Penaflor instructed crew members on several occasions to not tell officers about bypassing the pollution prevention equipment resulting in illegal discharges.
Then in February 2002, while the Galissas was conducting cargo operations in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, crew members became aware that the vessel’s inert gas system was inoperable.
This system is necessary to ensure that oxygen levels within the vessel’s cargo tanks remain at safe levels — at or below 8% — and do not pose a hazardous condition that could lead to an explosion or fire.
Headed to the US to pick up spare part
Rather than remaining in Rotterdam until the inert gas system could be repaired, shore side management of Zeus and captain Porquez determined that the vessel should instead sail to the US, where a spare part would be delivered.
While transiting the Atlantic Ocean, Porquez submitted a required notice of arrival to the US Coast Guard, but did not report that a hazardous condition existed on board.
On arrival in the US, the crew received and installed the spare part, but the inert gas system remained inoperable.
The USCG measured the oxygen levels within the vessel’s cargo tanks and found levels ranged between 15 and 17%, well beyond the maximum allowable 8%.
The tanker was ordered moved further offshore so as to not endanger the port of Newport in Rhode Island.
Porquez had tasked the chief officer with creating a logbook that indicated the cargo tanks were at safe oxygen levels when the tanker left the Netherlands and remained at safe levels during the majority of the vessel’s transit of the Atlantic Ocean.
No readings taken
In reality, the crew had not taken any readings of the oxygen levels in the cargo tanks during the vessel’s voyage.
Zeus will pay a penalty of $2.25m, consisting of a fine of $1,687,500 and a community service payment of $562,500.
The operator will serve a four-year term of probation, during which any vessels operated by the company and calling at US ports will be required to implement a robust environmental compliance plan.
“A critical mission of this office is protecting our environment from pollution and polluters, whether they impact our neighbourhoods or precious natural resources like the Narragansett Bay, one of the crown jewels of Rhode Island,” said US attorney Zachary Cunha for the District of Rhode Island.
“In this case, a foreign company decided it could ignore its obligation under American law, putting our waters and coastal communities at risk,” he added.
