Hong Kong Shipowners Admit Dumping 40 Tons Of Toxic Sludge, Coverup

[hatrack]

The Hong Kong owners of a Boston-bound container ship have agreed to pay the largest environmental fine in New England history, for pouring more than 40 tons of oil sludge into the Atlantic Ocean last year and then trying to cover up the crime.

In a federal plea agreement announced yesterday, MSC Ship Management Ltd. agreed to pay a $10.5 million fine and to plead guilty to federal charges of conspiracy, destruction of evidence, and making false statements stemming from the company's failure to properly dispose of waste oil from the ship's engines and machinery. The penalty eclipses a $9 million fine a New York company agreed to pay last year for causing a 2003 oil spill in Buzzards Bay.

In a routine inspection while the ship was in Boston Harbor this year, Coast Guard officials discovered doctored books and a hidden, illegal oil discharge system that drained directly to the sea. The oil was dumped far away from Boston during several journeys that the MSC Elena made over a five-month period in 2004, federal prosecutors said. ''There was nothing accidental about this case," said US Attorney Michael J. Sullivan.

MSC Ship Management ''knowingly violated antipollution laws, intentionally dumping oil sludge and waste oil directly into the ocean and even went so far as to manufacture a so-called 'magic pipe' to accomplish the crime," Sullivan said. Coast Guard officials say they believe the fine is the largest in the world against a company for intentional polluting from one ship.

EDIT

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2005/12/20/ship_owners_admit_to_releasing_sludge/