2nd Dec 2016 14:35
LONDON (Alliance News) - Princess Cruise Lines Ltd, owned by the world's biggest cruise ship company Carnival PLC, will have to pay the largest-ever criminal penalty for deliberate vessel pollution, after agreeing to plead guilty to seven felony charges.
According to the US Department of Justice, Princess will have to pay USD40.0 million for deliberately and illegally dumping oil-contaminated waste from the Caribbean Princess cruise ship into the sea, and then intentionally acting to cover it up.
In addition, cruise ships from eight Carnival cruise line companies will be under a court supervised 'Environmental Compliance Programme' for five years.
Princess has agreed to plead guilty to the charges after an engineer on the Caribbean Princess reported to the British Maritime & Coastguard Agency that a so-called 'magic pipe' had been used in August 2013 to illegally discharge oily waste off the coast of England.
Approximately 4,227 gallons were discharged, while the engineers simultaneously ran clean seawater through the ship's overboard equipment in order to create a false digital record for a legitimate discharge.
The newly-hired whistleblowing engineer quit his position when the ship reached Southampton, and the chief engineer and senior first engineer ordered a cover-up which included removing the 'magic pipe' and directing subordinates to lie.
The MCA shared evidence with the US Coast Guard, which examined the Caribbean Princess upon its arrival in New York in September 2013, but certain crew members continued to lie.
According to papers filed in court, the Caribbean Princess had been making illegal discharges through bypass equipment since 2005, one year after the ship began operations.
One other illegal practice was to open a salt water valve when bilge waste was being processed by the oily water separator and oil content monitor, in order to prevent the oil content monitor from otherwise alarming and stopping the overboard discharge.
A second illegal practice involved pumping oily bilge water originating from the overflow of graywater tanks back into the graywater system rather than being processed as oily bilge waste, before discharging it into the sea.
Neither of those practices were truthfully recorded in the oil record book as required.
"The pollution in this case was the result of more than just bad actors on one ship," said Assistant Attorney General John Cruden. "It reflects very poorly on Princess's culture and management. This is a company that knew better and should have done better. Hopefully the outcome of this case has the potential not just to chart a new course for this company, but for other companies as well."
"Today's case should send a powerful message to other companies that the US government will continue to enforce a zero tolerance policy for deliberate ocean dumping that endangers the countless animals, marine life and humans who rely on clean water to survive," added US Attorney Wifredo Ferrer.
According to the US Department of Justice, Princess has undertaken remedial measures in response to the US government's investigation, including upgrading the oily water separators and oil content monitors on every ship in its fleet and instituting many new policies.
If approved by the court, USD10 million of the USD40 million criminal penalty will be devoted to community service projects to benefit the maritime environment; USD3 million of the community service payments will go to environmental projects in South Florida; and USD1 million will be earmarked for projects to benefit the marine environment in UK waters.
Shares in Carnival were trading down 1.2% at 3,878.00 pence on Friday afternoon.
By Karolina Kaminska; [email protected]; @KarolinaAllNews
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