Horizon Lines, Inc. has agreed to plead guilty to two counts of providing false oil record-keeping entries for a containership, the company reported in a press release. This has implications for engineers from Alabama.
Under the agreement with the U.S. Justice Department, Horizon will pay a $1 million fine and contribute an extra $500,000 to the National Fish & Wildlife Foundation to be used toward environmental community service programs. Moreover, it will serve three years of probation and implement an environmental compliance program.
The violations involved wrongful use of the oily water separator (OWS) and deceptive record entries on the Horizon Enterprise which ran on the West Coast-Hawaii trade. An OWS separates oil from wastewater to no more than 15 parts per million before it is pumped overboard.
This case is the latest evidence of the federal government cracking down on the long practiced industry secret of doctoring oil record books and bypassing the OWS.
For years companies have gotten away with discharging slops directly into the sea either because they could not find a port to take them, the OWS did not work properly or to save on discharge fees.
In recent years the Coast Guard has been much more vigilant in enforcing vessel pollution compliance by fining companies and imprisoning crewmembers.
If you are an engineer from Alabama and the office or a supervisor pressures you to break pollution laws, you stand a good chance of losing your license and going to prison.
Category: Marine License Revocation
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