According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Louisiana, New Orleans Steamboat Company (NOSC), was charged on May 26, 2023, with violating the Clean Water Act (CWA) in reference to a discharge of extra ballast materials into the Industrial Canal in New Orleans in 2019.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office says that “according to the bill of information, NOSC negligently discharged, without the knowledge of the Board of Directors, and caused to be discharged a quantity of a substance into a navigable water of the United States, upon adjoining shorelines, and affecting the United States’ natural resources. The discharge took place on or around February 12, 2019, in the Inner Harbor Navigational Canal (“IHNC”), extra generally often known as the Industrial Canal.”
“An employee of NOSC, Matt Dow, was charged with a misdemeanor violation of the CWA, punishable by up to one year in jail and $100,000 fine.”
According to New Orleans Steamboat Company’s website, Dow is the corporate’s director of marine operations.
“If convicted,” says the U.S. Attorney’s Office, “NOSC faces a attainable time period of probation and a effective of as much as $50,000 or twice the gross acquire to the defendant or twice the gross loss to any sufferer in addition to a compulsory $100 particular evaluation price.
“A bill of information is merely a charge, and the guilt of the defendant must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.”
The case was investigated by the Environmental Protection Agency’s Criminal Investigation Division, and the Department of Transportation’s Office of Inspector General.
