Waste Hydraulic Oil News

Rowan Companies Inc. will pay $9m in penalties and add a corporate environmental division under a plea agreement in which it admitted the routine discharge of pollutants and garbage into the Gulf of Mexico from one of its drilling rigs, the Justice Department recently announced. Rowan pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Beaumont, Texas, to three felonies in connection with the dumping of waste hydraulic oil mixed with water, used paint, paint cans, and other trash from Rig Midland from 2002 to 2004. Nine company managers that were on the rig during the dumping also plead guilty to environmental crimes. According to the plea agreement…

Rowan Companies, Inc. (NYSE:RDC) announced that, pursuant to a plea agreement with the United States Department of Justice (DOJ), it entered guilty pleas to three felony counts in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, in connection with environmental violations related to maintenance and operations of the offshore drilling rig Rowan-Midland during the period from 2002 through 2004. The Rowan-Midland was sold by the company in January 2007. Specifically, the Company pleaded guilty to (i) causing the discharge of a pollutant, abrasive sandblast media, into U.S. navigable waters, thereby violating the Clean Water Act, (ii) failing to immediately report the discharge of waste hydraulic oil into U.S.