First Mate Guilty in Buzzards Bay Oil Spill
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Bouchard Transportation Co. officials pleaded guilty to two environmental crimes, agreed to pay a New England-record $10 million fine, and issued a strongly worded apology yesterday for their negligence in an oil spill last year that killed at least 450 seabirds and contaminated nearly 90 miles of shoreline in Buzzards Bay.
Officials of the New York-based shipping company admitted that neither the captain nor the first mate of its tugboat "Evening Tide" were at the controls on the evening of April 27, 2003, as the vessel and the oil-laden barge it was towing headed out of normal shipping lanes toward submerged rocks. The rocks tore a 12-foot-wide gash in the barge, causing the bay's worst oil spill since 1969.
Morton S. Bouchard III, chief executive of the company, apologized to people harmed by the spill. "I personally feel your anger and disgust about the effects of this accident," he said.
The settlement with US Attorney Michael J. Sullivan does not end the 11-month criminal investigation, which is now expected to focus on possible criminal indictments of individual Bouchard employees. Bouchard also turned over the results of its internal investigation of the accident.
Investigators are focusing on first mate Franklin Hill, who had been blamed for an accident the month before, when a barge rammed into a dock in Philadelphia.
Hill, who has since been fired, was in charge of the bridge on the afternoon of the accident, but had left the tugboat's controls to work in the stern of the ship. If a grand jury indicts him, Hill could face felony charges that require jail time under the Clean Water Act.
"Our message is very simple: Polluters beware," said Michael E. Hubbard, special agent in charge of criminal investigations at the Environmental Protection Agency, which has led the investigation into the Bouchard spill, with Sullivan's office.
Hill's lawyer, Peter Ball, declined to comment on his client, saying that Boston federal court rules prohibit lawyers from discussing open investigations.
The Bouchard settlement, announced during a press conference at the New Bedford Whaling Museum, includes the largest criminal fine for an oil spill in New England history. Under the deal, Bouchard will pay slightly more than $9 million now, of which $7 million will go to a national fund for improving wildlife habitat and $2 million to a trust fund to clean up oil spills.
The remaining $1 million will be waived after three years if the company meets several conditions of probation, including the hiring of local pilots to guide barges through Buzzards Bay.
Environmentalists welcomed the tough fine; some were disappointed that the money is not slated to be used in Buzzards Bay.
"It's my hope that as much of that money as possible could be directed toward areas affected by the spill," said Joe Costa, director of the Buzzards Bay Project National Estuary Program, which is helping to research the environmental damage from the spill.
Sullivan said Massachusetts members of Congress have expressed interest in funneling some of the fine to Buzzards Bay. He stressed that the criminal action is just one part of Bouchard's liability in the spill, which released between 22,000 and 98,000 gallons of heavy industrial oil into the bay. A company consultant placed the estimated amount at up to 55,000 gallons.
Bouchard must also pay the $40 million spent so far for cleanup, make payments through its insurers for private property damage, and face a future bill for environmental damage, officials said at the press conference. Studies of the environmental damage could take years, but Bouchard has taken responsibility for killing 450 loons and other birds protected under federal law.
Documents filed with the plea agreement provide a better picture of how an accident could have happened on a clear, calm afternoon in a well-marked shipping area. The documents point to a series of problems aboard the Evening Tide that turned a routine trip to a Cape Cod power plant into an environmental disaster.
First mate Hill was left in charge of barge B-120, loaded with 4 million gallons of heavy industrial oil, "despite repeated concerns that were raised about his competency," Sullivan said. Hired nine months before the accident, Hill had been criticized by two other tug captains, the settlement said. A month before the accident, Hill "caused a barge to collide with the dock in Philadelphia," according to the settlement. Though no oil spilled, the barge captain blamed Hill for approaching the dock too fast. And on the day of the spill, Hill caused several thousand dollars' worth of damage to the Evening Tide's tow wire, according to the settlement.
Other mariners saw the Evening Tide as it headed out of the shipping lane with its cargo and repeatedly tried to warn the tugboat by radio about the dangerous rocks just west of the channel, but neither Hill nor others responded, according to the settlement. In fact, Hill had left the bridge entirely to work in the stern of the boat, violating company policy. The barge plowed into the rocks 22 feet below the surface, cutting open one of the fuel-storage compartments. After the collision, other vessels reported the leak to the Coast Guard, which was unable to get Evening Tide crew members on the radio for 3 1/2 minutes.
Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly called the accident "inexcusable," but he pointed out that "as bad as all of it was, [the cleanup] was truly impressive." Slightly less than a year later, 97 percent of contaminated shellfishing areas are open again, though some coastal residents say that tar balls from the spill still wash ashore.