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6/25/2025
WT Staff
 Knowledge of an environmental crime? Give us a call at 877-52-WATER (877-529-2837), or email info@wtny.us
June 26 2025 1040 am EDT
CrimeBox
Clean Water Act Conviction Fiscal Year 2015; Case ID# CR_2712(Alaska)
Oops, they did it again! While on probation for a deliberate oil spill, cargo ship crew dumps oily water into the Bering Sea
The defendant in this case is a German shipping company, previously convicted of a Clean Water Act violation involving an illegal oil discharge from one of its container ships. The defendant was fined $1 million dollars with $250,000 restitution payment and three years probation for failing to maintain the onboard oil separation system, falsifying the oil record book and failing to alert the authorities of a hazardous condition aboard a vessel, in violation of the Clean Water Act, the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships, and the Ports and Waterways Safety Act. During the term of probation, the defendant was found illegally discharging heavy oil in US waters, again.
As the defendant's 617 ft-long container ship Lindavia passed the Alaskan coast through the US Exclusive Economic Zone in the Bering Sea in late January and early February 2015. US Coast Guard intercepted at Dutch Harbor. The terms of the defendant's probation allowed Coast Guard to perform a search without a warrant. The impromptu inspection revealed a corroded fuel tank had leaked 35,000 gallons of heavy oil into a cargo hold below the engine room. Investigators determined that the ship had sailed before cleaning up the oil spill, that the oil record book had again been falsified, and that crew members had pumped more than one thousand seven hundred gallons of heavy oil-contaminated water into the Bering Sea over a period of five days.
First Assistant United States Attorney Kevin Feldis commented on defendant's second violation, "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." The defendant admitted to knowing the acts committed were in violation of the law, pleading guilty to the charges. The defendant was sentenced to another federal fine and community restitution payable to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.
This case was investigated by the U.S. Coast Guard Investigative Service and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Criminal Investigation Division.
Federal Fines: $600,000; Restitution: $150,000; Probation: 72 months
See last SDWA Legal, ""Inexcusable." Alaskan Cruise line convicted for deliberately dumping oil, fined $6.5 million", here.
SDWA CrimeBox briefs are compiled from EPA Criminal Enforcement records.
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