Glyfada, Greece, headquartered Zeus Lines Management S.A. pleaded responsible on Monday in Providence, Rhode Island, to sustaining false and incomplete data referring to the unlawful discharge of oily bilge and for failing to report a hazardous situation on board the 2008-built Panama-flagged 50,058 dwt oil tanker Galissas. The firm’s chief engineer, Roberto Cayabyab Penaflor, and captain, Jose Ervin Mahigne Porquez additionally pleaded responsible to their roles in these crimes. The defendants are scheduled to be sentenced on Aug. 8.
While the U.S Justice Department’s account of the oily bilge discharge offenses covers some sadly all too acquainted territory, the hazardous situation found on board the ship —an inoperable inert fuel generator —may have had disastrous penalties. So a lot in order that the Coast Guard ordered the vessel to be moved additional offshore.
ILLEGAL DISCHARGE OF OILY BILGE WATER
According to courtroom paperwork, says the Department of Justice, Zeus and Penaflor admitted that oily bilge water was illegally dumped from the Galissas immediately into the ocean with out being correctly processed by means of required air pollution prevention tools. Oily bilge water sometimes accommodates oil contamination from the operation and cleansing of equipment on the vessel. They additionally admitted that these unlawful discharges weren’t recorded within the vessel’s oil document e book as required by legislation.
Specifically, on three separate events between November 2021 and February 2022, Penaflor ordered crew members working for him within the engine room to discharge a complete of roughly 9,544 gallons of oily bilge water from the vessel’s bilge holding tank immediately into the ocean utilizing the vessel’s emergency fireplace pump, bypassing the vessel’s required air pollution prevention tools. In addition, in preparation for the U.S. Coast Guard’s inspection of the Galissas, Penaflor instructed crew members on a number of events to not inform the Coast Guard about bypassing the air pollution prevention tools leading to unlawful discharges.
INOPERABLE INERT GAS GENERATOR
In addition to the unlawful discharges of oily bilge water, on Feb. 2, 2022, whereas the Galissas was conducting cargo operations in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, crew members grew to become conscious that the vessel’s inert fuel system was inoperable. This system is necessary to ensure that oxygen levels within the vessel’s cargo tanks remain at safe levels – at or under 8% – and don’t pose a hazardous situation that would result in an explosion or fireplace. Rather than remaining in Rotterdam till the inert fuel system may very well be repaired, shore facet administration of Zeus and Captain Porquez decided that the vessel ought to as a substitute sail to the U.S., the place a spare half can be delivered on the vessel’s arrival for the crew to restore the system.
On Feb. 11, 2022, whereas the Galissas was transiting the Atlantic Ocean from the Netherlands to the United States, Porquez submitted a required discover of arrival to the U.S. Coast Guard informing the Coast Guard of, amongst different issues, the vessel’s final port of name, deliberate arrival within the United States and the kind of cargo onboard the vessel. In this discover of arrival, Porquez didn’t report {that a} hazardous situation existed onboard the vessel (the inoperable inert fuel system).
On Feb. 19, 2022, the Galissas arrived off the coast of Rhode Island and though the vessel’s crew obtained and put in the spare half, the inert fuel system remained inoperable. The following day, the U.S. Coast Guard measured the oxygen ranges inside the vessel’s cargo tanks and located ranges ranged between 15 and 17%, properly past the utmost allowable 8%. The Coast Guard then ordered that the vessel be moved additional offshore in order to not endanger the port of Newport, Rhode Island.
Porquez had a logbook created that indicated the cargo tanks have been at protected oxygen ranges when the vessel left the Netherlands and remained at protected ranges throughout nearly all of the vessel’s transit of the Atlantic Ocean. In actuality, the crew had not taken any readings of the oxygen ranges within the cargo tanks throughout the vessel’s voyage. Porquez had tasked the vessel’s chief officer with creating this fraudulent logbook that was then offered to the U.S. Coast Guard throughout its inspection.
Zeus and Penaflor every pleaded responsible to a felony violation of the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships for failing to precisely preserve the oil document e book for the Galissas. Zeus and Porquez additionally pleaded responsible to a felony violation of the Ports and Waterways Safety Act for failing to report the vessel’s hazardous situation to the U.S. Coast Guard. Under the phrases of the plea settlement, which is topic to courtroom approval, Zeus can pay a complete financial penalty of $2.25 million, consisting of a positive of $1,687,500 and a group service cost of $562,500. The group service cost will go to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to fund initiatives to learn marine and coastal pure assets situated within the State of Rhode Island. Additionally, Zeus will serve a four-year time period of probation, throughout which any vessels operated by the corporate and calling on U.S. ports will likely be required to implement a sturdy environmental compliance plan.
