Ship Operator Sentenced over Oil Discharge Offense, Master Indicted
Ship operator Interorient Marine Services Limited was convicted and sentenced in the Western District of Louisiana last week for maintaining false and incomplete records relating to the discharge of oil from the 183-meter (600-foot), 50,250dwt tanker Ridgebury Alexandra Z.
Interorient Marine Services Limited admitted that oil cargo residues and oily bilge water were illegally dumped from the Ridgebury Alexandra Z directly into the ocean without being properly processed through required pollution prevention equipment. The company also admitted that false entries were made in the vessel’s Oil Record Book to conceal the illegal dumping.
Senior ship officers employed by Interorient Marine Services Limited discharged oily waste into the ocean by flushing the vessel’s pollution prevention equipment sensor with fresh water. This flushing of the sensor tricked the system into detecting a much lower effluent oil content than what was actually being discharged. These senior officers then falsified the vessel’s Oil Record Book, recording that 87,705 gallons of oily wastewater had been discharged properly through the pollution prevention equipment, when in fact they knew that this pollution prevention equipment had been tampered with.
Interorient Marine Services Limited pleaded guilty, and under the terms of the plea agreement, the company will pay a total fine of $2 million and serve a four-year term of probation, during which all vessels operated by the company calling on U.S. ports will be required to implement a robust Environmental Compliance Plan.
Master Indicted
The vessel’s captain, Vjaceslavs Birzakovs, was charged in a six-count indictment by a Grand Jury in the Western District of Louisiana on November 29, 2018, for his involvement in this case. The indictment alleges that Birzakovs directed circumvention of the vessel’s pollution prevention equipment, falsified records, obstructed justice, made false statements and conspired with other crewmembers to falsify the vessel’s Oil Record Book and to obstruct the U.S. Coast Guard’s enforcement of the law in conjunction with the illegal discharges from the Ridgebury Alexandra Z. The charges and allegations contained in Birzakovs’ indictment are merely accusations, and he is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.