U.S. DOJ: Ferry Operator and Barge Operator Both Charged in Separate Incidents

Ferry Operator Charged With Dumping Sewage & Barge Captain Indicted in Fatal 2005 Explosion.

• Sewage Dumped off North Shore Beaches and in the Charles River during July 4th Celebration.

BOSTON, MA - A company based in Marblehead was charged today in federal court with dumping sewage into North Shore waters from a popular ferry it operates out of Salem.

United States Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz, Rear Admiral J. L. Nimmich, United States Coast Guard, Commander, First Coast Guard District and William Schenkelberg, Special Agent in Charge of the Northeast Region of the Coast Guard Investigative Service, announced today that The Rockmore Company, Inc. was charged in a Criminal

Information with two violations of the Rivers and Harbors Act arising out of its practice of dumping human waste into local waters.

The Information alleges that, from 1990 to 2006, the company has operated a 59-foot long passenger vessel named the P/V Hannah Glover based in Salem. The Hannah Glover provides dinner cruises and sightseeing tours in the waters along the shores of the Massachusetts towns of Marblehead, Beverly and Manchester-by-the-Sea. On several occasions, the vessel ferried passengers to the Charles River in Boston to view the annual 4th of July celebration on the Charles River Esplanade. The company also regularly shuttled children from Marblehead to a summer camp on Children’s Island just off the Massachusetts coast. The company also operated a 116-foot barge called the P/V Rockmore, on which the company maintained a restaurant.

The Information further alleges that for many years crew members routinely utilized the ship’s sewage pump to discharge raw sewage directly overboard. Ordinarily, deck hands activated the pump and opened the overboard discharge valve either upon order of the master of the vessel, or upon observing the overflowing of the vessel’s public toilets.

The Information further alleges that the discharges took place at various locations along the Massachusetts coast, including in Salem Harbor and off beaches in Marblehead and Beverly, as well as in the Charles River near the Esplanade during the 4th of July celebrations in 2002. The discharges ranged in amount in the hundreds of gallons. The sewage discharged from the Hannah Glover included the waste generated by its passengers, as well as the sewage from the Rockmore, as the company’s employees routinely pumped the contents of the Rockmore’s sewage holding tank onto the Hannah Glover for disposal. During some summers, the company allowed the sewage holding tank aboard the Rockmore intermittently to overflow, such that raw, untreated sewage spilled into Salem Harbor.

The case was investigated by the Coast Guard Investigative Service. It is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan F. Mitchell of Ortiz's Economic Crimes Unit, and Special Assistant United States Attorneys Russell Bowman and Cassie Kitchen of the United States Coast Guard.

The details contained in the Information are allegations. The defendant is presumed to be innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

• Barge Captain & Marine company Indicted in Fatal explosion that also discharged slurry oil in Chicago canal.

CHICAGO — The captain of a tank barge that exploded in 2005, resulting in the death of a crew member, and the company that owned and operated the vessel were indicted today on federal charges of maritime negligence and causing thousands of gallons of oil to pollute the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal. The defendants, Dennis Michael Egan and Egan Marine Corp., were charged in a three-count indictment returned today by a federal grand jury, announced Patrick J. Fitzgerald, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois.

Egan, 32,of Topeka, Ill., and formerly of Lemont, and Egan Marine, of Lemont, were each charged with one count of negligence by a ship officer or owner resulting in death in separate counts and were charged together with one count of causing oil to pollute a navigable waterway. They will be arraigned at a later date in U.S. District Court in Chicago.

Mr. Fitzgerald announced the charges with Neal R. Marzloff, Special Agent-in-Charge of the U.S. Coast Guard Investigative Service, Central Region, in Cleveland, and Randall Ashe, Special Agent-in-Charge of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Criminal Enforcement in Chicago, and he commended investigators from both agencies for conducting a thorough, lengthy investigation.

According to court records and the indictment, on Jan. 19, 2005, a fully-loaded Egan Marine Corp. tank barge, known as the EMC-423, being pushed by the tow boat Lisa E, was transporting approximately 600,000 gallons of clarified slurry oil from the ExxonMobil Oil Corp. refinery in Joliet to the Ameropan Oil Corp. facility near the canal and California Avenue in Chicago. Clarified slurry oil (CSO) is a byproduct of petroleum refining that can also be used as fuel.

About 4:40 p.m., just after clearing the Cicero Avenue Bridge and heading northeast parallel to the I-55 Stevenson Expressway, a large explosion erupted on the barge. As a result, the EMC-423 sank, discharging thousands of gallons of the combustible heavy oil into the canal, according to court documents. Immediately after the blast, crewman Alexander Oliva, 29, who had been aboard the barge, was determined to be missing. His body was recovered from the canal near Laramie Avenue on Feb. 4, 2005.

Court documents allege that Egan Marine Corp. and its employees negligently vented combustible vapors from the cargo hold of the barge to the deck of the vessel, causing an explosion hazard. At the alleged direction of Egan Marine, Oliva was using a propane-fueled open flame from a handheld “rosebud torch” to heat a cargo pump on the barge deck. Clarified slurry oil hardens in cold temperatures, requiring the cargo pump to be heated to offload the oil at its destination. The use of an open flame to heat the pump near the vented vapors allegedly caused the explosion and, ultimately, Oliva’s death, the destruction of the barge and the oil pollution of the canal, the charges allege.

According to the indictment, Dennis Egan was the captain and pilot of the Lisa E and the EMC-423 barge, which had no crew, self-propulsion or navigation system of its own. Dennis Egan allegedly was negligent and inattentive to his duties on the vessels by allowing an open flame to be used on the deck of the EMC-423, which was loaded with 599,424 gallons of the slurry oil. Egan Marine Corp., which owned both vessels, allegedly was negligent in allowing the use of the open flame aboard the barge, resulting in the explosion and Oliva’s death.

Both Dennis Egan and Egan Marine allegedly violated the oil pollution provisions of the federal Clean Water Act by negligently causing the discharge of thousands of gallons of oil into the canal, which is a navigable U.S. waterway.

The government is being represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy Chapman and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Crissy Pellegrin, of the U.S. EPA’s Office of Criminal Enforcement.

The maritime negligence charge against Dennis Egan carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, and the same count against Egan Marine carries a maximum penalty of five years’ probation and a $500,000 fine. The misdemeanor oil pollution count carries a maximum penalty against Dennis Egan of a year in prison and a $100,000 fine, while Egan Marine faces a maximum penalty of a year’s probation and a $200,000 fine. Both defendants face a minimum fine of $2,500 if convicted of the pollution count. Restitution is mandatory. If convicted, however, the Court would determine a reasonable sentence to impose under the advisory United States Sentencing Guidelines.

An indictment contains only charges and is not evidence of guilt. The defendants are presumed innocent and are entitled to a fair trial at which the government has the burden of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.