A German shipping company already on probation was sentenced in Anchorage federal court Wednesday to pay $750,000 for intentionally dumping more than 1,700 gallons of oily water off the coast of Alaska and then giving the U.S. Coast Guard in Dutch Harbor false records.
Herm. Dauelsberg GmbH & Co. KG will also see a new three-year probation term and was ordered to put a comprehensive environmental plan in place, according to a statement from the Alaska District Attorney’s office.
Herm. Dauelsberg is the operator of the Motor Vessel Lindavia, a cargo container ship that operates under the flag of the Republic of Liberia.
According to Kevin Feldis, first assistant U.S. attorney, 35,000 gallons of heavy fuel had leaked into the ship’s cargo hold after a bulkhead corroded and a hole developed in a fuel tank.
Then, from late January to Feb. 11, the M/V Lindavia traveled from South Korea to China before going through the U.S.’s Exclusive Economic Zone and arriving in Dutch Harbor the night of Feb. 11, the DA’s office said. The ship left South Korea and made its way to Alaska before the fuel was cleaned from the bilge area below the cargo hold, “ultimately resulting in the crew illegally and intentionally discharging a mix of sea water and heavy fuel oil that accumulated in that bilge area,” Feldis said.
As the operator for the 617-foot vessel, Herm. Dauelsberg was responsible for operating an oil water separator and maintaining an accurate oil record book.
On at least five different days during the trip to Alaska, Herm. Dauelsberg knowingly dumped at least 1,430 gallons of “oily water” overboard, the DA’s office said. Once about 100 miles from Dutch Harbor on Feb. 11, crew members discharged at least another 350 gallons of oily water into the Bering Sea — an area within U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone.
The German company, which was already on probation at the time, “knowingly failed” to record the oil discharges as required by the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships and “knowingly presented false and fictitious” oil records to the Coast Guard, the DA’s office said.
During the new probation period, the company will see a “heightened level of scrutiny, including warrantless searches of its vessels and places of business based upon a reasonable suspicion that it is violating the law,” according to the DA’s office.
In addition to $600,000 worth of criminal fines, Herm. Dauelsberg must also pay $150,000 in community restitution, which will go to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation for research, projects and education.
This is not the first of the company’s troubles with the law. On April 4, Herm. Dauelsberg pleaded guilty in California to failing to maintain an accurate oil record book and for failing to report a hazardous condition aboard a vessel. Herm. Dauelsberg was sentenced to a three-year probation, a $1 million fine, a $250,000 community service payment and a $800 special assessment.
It also marks a second recent case regarding illegal oil dumping off the coast of Alaska.
“This is the second conviction and sentence in the last 10 days stemming from the intentional and illegal discharge of oil from cargo ships into waters off the coast of Alaska,” Feldis said in a statement. “There is no excuse for this conduct. Companies that seek to profit from transporting cargo across the world’s oceans have a responsibility to likewise invest in following the law.”
Contact Hope Miller at hmiller@ktva.com and @HopeMiller
