By Mark Edward Nero
Years of efforts to reduce environmental impacts related to goods movement have resulted in a flourishing ecosystem for fish and marine mammals, the latest report on the water and habitat quality of the Long Beach and Los Angeles harbors has found.
The ports and resource agencies that oversee wildlife in the harbors use the survey results to evaluate progress in improving the health of the natural resources under their stewardship.
The newest survey, conducted in 2013 and 2014 through an ongoing partnership between the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles, identified 558 species of plants and animals living on the rocks and pilings in the harbors. This represents a 60 percent increase from the last survey in 2008 and almost twice the number cataloged in the 2000 survey.
“There’s growing biodiversity in the harbors, including more birds and marine mammals, and we’re seeing species that cannot thrive in polluted waters,” Board of Harbor Commissioners President Lori Ann Guzmán said in a Jan. 9 statement. “We should all be proud of these results and continue to work hard to build on this progress.”
Water quality conditions also improved according to the study, with oxygen and phytoplankton measurements higher than ever. Fish were abundant, and giant kelp beds expanded to cover as much as 132 acres of Outer Harbor waters; maximum kelp coverage reached only 27 acres in 2000 and 80 acres in 2008.
The final report and fact sheet for the Biological Harbor Survey are both available on the Port of Long Beach’s website.
Showing posts with label environmental pollution. Show all posts
Showing posts with label environmental pollution. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 10, 2017
Friday, October 28, 2016
Shippers Guilty in San Diego ‘Magic' Pipe Case
By Mark Edward Nero
Two German shipping companies that owned and operated the motor vessel Nils B pleaded guilty in federal court in San Diego on Oct. 25 to one felony violation of the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships for failing to accurately maintain an oil record book. W. Bockstiegel Reederei GmbH & Co. KG, which operated the vessel, and W. Bockstiegel GmbH & Co. Reederei KG MS, which owned the vessel, were the companies that pleaded guilty.
In doing so, the firms admitted that they failed to disclose that oil-contaminated water had been discharged into the ocean from the vessel without the use of pollution prevention equipment.
According to the plea agreement, personnel from the US Coast Guard boarded the vessel after its entry into the Port of San Diego on Aug. 5, 2014. Once on board, the Coast Guard discovered that the crew had failed to keep an oil record book for a significant period of time, modifications had been made to piping coming from the oil water separator and oil was discovered in discharge piping that should not have been present.
The defendants acknowledged that Coast Guard examiners took oil samples from the oil water separator’s overboard discharge valve and from the vessel’s sludge tank and the samples from the two locations matched.
Under US and international law, sludge is never to be discharged through an oil water separator. The Coast Guard also discovered a black hose near the oil water separator that contained light fuel oil mixed with lubricating oil. In the industry, such a hose is known as a “magic pipe.”
The defendants, in pleading guilty, admitted that the oil record book on board the vessel did not disclose any discharges of sludge between the time that the overboard discharge valve had been cleaned while the vessel was in dry dock in June of 2014 and its entry into the Port of San Diego in August.
According to the plea documents, the company and the United States agree to recommend that the court impose a total criminal penalty of $750,000, of which $250,000 will be a community service payment for the benefit of the Tijuana River National Estuarine Research Reserve to further research related to the effects of pollution on the marine estuarine environment.
Sentencing for this case has been set for Nov. 3 before Judge Jan M. Adler.
Two German shipping companies that owned and operated the motor vessel Nils B pleaded guilty in federal court in San Diego on Oct. 25 to one felony violation of the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships for failing to accurately maintain an oil record book. W. Bockstiegel Reederei GmbH & Co. KG, which operated the vessel, and W. Bockstiegel GmbH & Co. Reederei KG MS, which owned the vessel, were the companies that pleaded guilty.
In doing so, the firms admitted that they failed to disclose that oil-contaminated water had been discharged into the ocean from the vessel without the use of pollution prevention equipment.
According to the plea agreement, personnel from the US Coast Guard boarded the vessel after its entry into the Port of San Diego on Aug. 5, 2014. Once on board, the Coast Guard discovered that the crew had failed to keep an oil record book for a significant period of time, modifications had been made to piping coming from the oil water separator and oil was discovered in discharge piping that should not have been present.
The defendants acknowledged that Coast Guard examiners took oil samples from the oil water separator’s overboard discharge valve and from the vessel’s sludge tank and the samples from the two locations matched.
Under US and international law, sludge is never to be discharged through an oil water separator. The Coast Guard also discovered a black hose near the oil water separator that contained light fuel oil mixed with lubricating oil. In the industry, such a hose is known as a “magic pipe.”
The defendants, in pleading guilty, admitted that the oil record book on board the vessel did not disclose any discharges of sludge between the time that the overboard discharge valve had been cleaned while the vessel was in dry dock in June of 2014 and its entry into the Port of San Diego in August.
According to the plea documents, the company and the United States agree to recommend that the court impose a total criminal penalty of $750,000, of which $250,000 will be a community service payment for the benefit of the Tijuana River National Estuarine Research Reserve to further research related to the effects of pollution on the marine estuarine environment.
Sentencing for this case has been set for Nov. 3 before Judge Jan M. Adler.
Tuesday, February 17, 2015
Shipping Company Admits to Dumping Oily Bilge
By Mark Edward Nero
A shipping company and one of its engineers have agreed to plead guilty to criminal charges involving wastewater dumping in US waters off Alaska, federal prosecutors said Feb. 12.
German shipping company AML Ship Management GMBH and chief engineer Nicholas Sassin admitted that AML-operated cargo ship City of Tokyo, which was carrying vehicles from South Korea to the US West Coast – pumped 4,500 gallons of oily bilge water overboard while sailing 165 miles south of the Aleutian Islands, according to plea agreements filed in federal courts in Anchorage and Portland.
The ship is a 603 feet long, Liberian-flagged vehicle carrier vessel. The dumping took place on or about Aug. 29, 2014, according to court documents.
According to prosecutors, the oily bilge water bypassed the ship’s legally mandated oil-water separator by being sent directly overboard through a makeshift hose-and-pump system.
AML and Sassin have each agreed to plead guilty to one count of violating the Clean Water Act and another count of violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships. The Clean Water Act charges, filed in Anchorage, concern the actual dumping; the APPS charges, filed in Portland, concern falsified wastewater records that court documents say were turned over to authorities when the City of Tokyo arrived in Portland, the ship’s delivery destination.
AML has agreed to pay $800,000 in fines and community service payments, to undergo an environmental compliance plan to improve operations and to serve three years of criminal probation, according to the plea agreement.
Sassin’s plea agreement does not specify a penalty deal between the parties, but federal prosecutors have said they’ll recommend a six-month prison term.
The maximum possible penalty for each of the violations is a $500,000 fine for the company and a $250,000 fine and a three-year prison term for Sassin, according to Assistant US Attorney Kevin Feldis, who said that it was crew members who alerted authorities to the illegal dumping.
“In this case, we had people who followed the law and did what was right,” he said.
A shipping company and one of its engineers have agreed to plead guilty to criminal charges involving wastewater dumping in US waters off Alaska, federal prosecutors said Feb. 12.
German shipping company AML Ship Management GMBH and chief engineer Nicholas Sassin admitted that AML-operated cargo ship City of Tokyo, which was carrying vehicles from South Korea to the US West Coast – pumped 4,500 gallons of oily bilge water overboard while sailing 165 miles south of the Aleutian Islands, according to plea agreements filed in federal courts in Anchorage and Portland.
The ship is a 603 feet long, Liberian-flagged vehicle carrier vessel. The dumping took place on or about Aug. 29, 2014, according to court documents.
According to prosecutors, the oily bilge water bypassed the ship’s legally mandated oil-water separator by being sent directly overboard through a makeshift hose-and-pump system.
AML and Sassin have each agreed to plead guilty to one count of violating the Clean Water Act and another count of violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships. The Clean Water Act charges, filed in Anchorage, concern the actual dumping; the APPS charges, filed in Portland, concern falsified wastewater records that court documents say were turned over to authorities when the City of Tokyo arrived in Portland, the ship’s delivery destination.
AML has agreed to pay $800,000 in fines and community service payments, to undergo an environmental compliance plan to improve operations and to serve three years of criminal probation, according to the plea agreement.
Sassin’s plea agreement does not specify a penalty deal between the parties, but federal prosecutors have said they’ll recommend a six-month prison term.
The maximum possible penalty for each of the violations is a $500,000 fine for the company and a $250,000 fine and a three-year prison term for Sassin, according to Assistant US Attorney Kevin Feldis, who said that it was crew members who alerted authorities to the illegal dumping.
“In this case, we had people who followed the law and did what was right,” he said.
