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Enforcement And Compliance Assurance News

26 Jan 2021

Guam Shipyard Settles EPA Pollution Violations

(Photo: Corey Hensley / U.S. Navy)

Ship repair yard Guam Shipyard will pay nearly $70,000 and take measures to improve its facilities following multiple pollution violations discovered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 2018.The EPA said on Tuesday its settlement with Guam Industrial Services, Inc., doing business as Guam Shipyard, includes a $68,388 penalty as well as mandatory installation of preventative measures to reduce the discharge of stormwater pollutants into Apra Harbor.Guam Shipyard operates a ship repair facility on Cabras Island in Piti…

23 Apr 2020

What Will COVID-19 Mean for US Offshore Wind?

© Bragapictures / Adobe Stock

What will COVID-19 mean for the offshore wind industry? An industry not yet spinning on its own.Epitomized by the roller coaster ride that defined the stock market over the last few weeks, unpredictability has emerged as one of the few certainties of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) crisis. Every industry has seen the effects of the pandemic, from hospitality, to travel, and even to the renewable energy sector. Indeed, even though the US offshore wind industry is not yet fully established…

20 Sep 2019

US Fines HHI $47Mln Over Dirty Engines

US authorities announced that South Korea's top shipbuilding conglomerate Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) will pay a US$47 million fine for illegally importing and selling dirty diesel engines in violation of American environmental rules.US Justice Department and and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said that between 2012 and 2015, the company imported nearly 2,300 diesel-powered heavy construction vehicles with engines that did not meet US emissions standards.“Hyundai put profits above the public’s health and the requirements of the law,” Jeffrey Bossert Clark, head of the department’s environment and natural resources division…

24 Mar 2015

EPA: MTU Must Audit Emissions Testing

MTU America Inc., a subsidiary of Rolls-Royce Power Systems AG, will implement an auditing program to ensure proper emissions testing and compliance with federal emission standards for its heavy-duty diesel non-road engines as part of a settlement to resolve alleged Clean Air Act violations, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Justice and announced today. The complaint filed with the settlement alleges that MTU violated the Clean Air Act by selling 895 non-road, heavy-duty diesel engines, which are used in mining, marine and power generation vehicles and equipment, without valid certificates of conformity. EPA voided the certificates of conformity purporting to cover the engines based on improper emissions testing by MTU employees.

16 Jan 2015

EPA Publishes ECA Penalty Policy

File photo

EPA has released a penalty policy for ECA violations. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has released a penalty policy for violations of the sulfur in fuel standard and related provisions for ships. The policy, which pursues violations of U.S. and international air pollution requirements by ships operating in the North American and U.S. Caribbean Sea Emissions Control Areas (ECA), applies to violations of new international standards for sulfur emissions from ships that went into effect on Jan. 1, 2015, and violations under the previous standards.

19 Nov 2014

USCG, EPA Preparing for ECAs Enforcement

The U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will soon take action to ensure compliance with the forthcoming 0.10 percent fuel sulphur limits in the North American and U.S. Caribbean Sea Emmission Control Areas (ECAs), the USCG’s Maritime Commons said. “We will be coordinated in our efforts to ensure compliance with the new requirements effective January 1, 2015,” said Rear Adm. Paul Thomas, assistant commandant for Prevention Policy at U.S. Coast Guard Headquarters. According to Maritime Commons, the USCG will continue to check Bunker Delivery Notes and other records during Port State and Flag State visits to vessels…

16 Oct 2014

US, ATP-IP Reach Settlement over Unauthorized Oil Discharges

Under a settlement agreement with the United States, ATP Infrastructure Partners, LP (ATP-IP) will pay a $1 million civil penalty and perform corrective measures to resolve claims by the U.S. under the Clean Water Act and the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA) of unauthorized discharges of oil and chemicals from an oil platform into the Gulf of Mexico, announced the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Department of Justice, and the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE). This is the first joint judicial enforcement action involving EPA and BSEE claims in response to alleged violations of both the Clean Water Act and OCSLA. The United States’ complaint, which was filed in February 2013, in the U.S.

12 May 2011

Prem Kumar Added to EPA Fugitive List

WASHINGTON – Prem Kumar, also known as Premakumaran Krishnan, a citizen of India, has been added to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) fugitive list for failing to surrender to federal law enforcement authorities after he was indicted for his role in an illegal ocean-going vessel wastewater discharge case. Illegally discharging wastewater into the ocean threatens aquatic life and can lead to fish kills, contamination of fish and shellfish, and may have long-term ecological effects.

13 Feb 2011

EPA, USCG MOU for Enforcement & Compliance

Photo courtesy USCG

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) outlining steps the agencies will take to better coordinate efforts to prevent illegal discharges of pollutants from more than 61,000 commercial ships based in the U.S. and more than 8,000 foreign ships operating in U.S. waters. Today’s MOU creates a framework for improving EPA and USCG cooperation on data tracking, training, monitoring, verifying compliance, and industry outreach.

04 Apr 2005

Evergreen Tagged with $25M Bill

The United States Attorneys from five judicial districts with major ports today announced criminal charges against Evergreen International, S.A. (Evergreen), one of many Evergreen-related companies involved in the container ship business. Under the terms of a plea agreement, Evergreen will pay $25 million, the largest-ever amount for a case involving deliberate vessel pollution, and plead guilty to felony charges brought in Los Angeles; Newark, NJ; Portland, OR; Seattle; and Charleston, SC. Evergreen pleaded guilty today to 24 felony counts and one misdemeanor - five counts from each federal district involved in the case - for concealing the deliberate, illegal discharge of waste oil and for a negligent discharge in the Columbia River.

29 Apr 2005

Mate Charged in Buzzards Bay Oil Spill

A Jacksonville, Florida man was charged today in federal court with one count of violating the Clean Water Act and one count of violating the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. United States Attorney Michael J. Sullivan; Thomas V. Skinner, Acting Assistant Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, Enforcement and Compliance Assurance; William Schenkelberg, Special Agent in Charge of the Northeast Region of the U.S. Coast Guard Investigative Service; and Thomas J. Healy, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Office of Law Enforcement, announced today that FRANKLIN ROBERT HILL, age 53, of Jacksonville, Florida…

25 May 2005

Tugboat Mate Convicted

A Jacksonville, Florida man pleaded guilty in federal court to violating the Clean Water Act and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. United States Attorney Michael J. Sullivan; Thomas V. Skinner, Acting Assistant Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, Enforcement and Compliance Assurance; William Schenkelberg, Special Agent in Charge of the Northeast Region of the U.S. Coast Guard Investigative Service; and Thomas J. Healy, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Office of Law Enforcement, announced today that FRANKLIN ROBERT HILL, age 53, of Jacksonville, Florida, pleaded guilty before U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert B.

18 Oct 2007

Ship’s Chief Engineer Convicted in Vessel Pollution Case

Mark Humphries, the chief engineer of the M/V Tanabata, an American-flagged car-carrier ship based in Baltimore, was convicted by a jury on one count of conspiracy and two counts of making false statements, announced Ronald J. Tenpas, Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division and Rod J. Rosenstein, U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland. At trial, it was proven that the M/V Tanabata had a removable bypass pipe or “magic pipe” that was used to discharge oily waste without the use of an oily-water separator, a required pollution control devise. The discharges were, however, falsely recorded as having been processed through the separator in the ship’s oil record book, a required log regularly inspected by the U.S.

17 Apr 2006

Japanese Shipping Company to Pay $350K for Polluting

A Japanese shipping company admitted that it intentionally failed to maintain required records concerning overboard discharges of oil sludge and oil-contaminated bilge water from one of its cargo ships, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Department of Justice, Coast Guard and the Environmental Protection Agency announced. MK Shipmanagement Company, Ltd. pleaded guilty to one felony count of intentionally failing to maintain an oil record book, in violation of the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships, and will pay a total of $350,000 in criminal fines and community service payments. U.S. District Judge William H. Walls took the guilty plea from the corporation. Sentencing is scheduled for July 18.