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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 1, 1996
96-46
CONTACT:
Paul O’Brien, (206) 649-7130 Dept. of Ecology
Stan Norman, (360) 664-9123 Office of Marine Safety
Curt Hart, (360) 407-6973 Dept. of Ecology
SPILL COSTS FOREIGN-FLAGGED TANKER $18,500
OLYMPIA -- A crew member’s failure to pay attention during refueling operations has cost a New York shipping firm $18,500 in environmental penalties.
The state Department of Ecology and Office of Marine Safety (OMS) assessed fines against the owners of the oil tanker NEPTUNE, Fourth Products Tankers, Inc., and the operator, Maritime Overseas Corp., both of New York, N.Y., for a 378 gallon oil spill that occurred on Feb. 5, 1996. The overflow spill occurred while the Liberia-flagged ship was bunkering, or taking on fuel, at the Texaco dock near Anacortes.
The oil impacted a privately owned beach on nearby Guemes Island and beach cleanup activities continued there for nearly a month afterwards. The spill was also close to Padilla and Fildalgo bays, which are among the most environmentally sensitive areas in Puget Sound.
Ecology issued a $16,000 fine for the illegal and negligent discharge of oil into state waters. The agency found that a crew member incorrectly assumed fueling had ceased and left his monitoring post without communicating to the fueling facility and his fellow crew members. As a result, the ship’s tanks were overfilled. OMS has levied an additional $2,500 for failure to follow nine different provisions of Washington state bunkering rules. The bunkering rules focus on prevention of oil spills by reducing human error through careful planning for fuel transfers.
The state is also pursuing a resource damage assessment against the tanker’s owner and operator for environmental damages caused by the spill.
Copyright © Washington State Department of Ecology. See http://www.ecy.wa.gov/copyright.html.
