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Shipper Fined $4M For Polluting, Lying To Officials In Bayonne

An Italian shipping company has been ordered to pay $4 million for dumping oily waste into the ocean and then lying to conceal the offense, the U.S. Attorney's Office said Thursday. 

Newark Bay. Part of a large fine imposed on an Italian shipping company will go towards environmental restoration projects

Newark Bay. Part of a large fine imposed on an Italian shipping company will go towards environmental restoration projects

Photo Credit: Wikipedia

The company, d'Amico Shipping Italia, previously pleaded guilty to violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships. 

Authorities say an oil tanker, Cielo di Milano, stopped at U.S, ports, including ports in New Jersey. The company, which owns the tanker, admitted that workers sent oily waste directly into the ocean, bypassing pollution control equipment, and that the discharges sometimes occurred within 200 nautical miles of the U.S. coast. 

The company also falsified records to cover up the illegal activity, which took place from August 2014 to January 2015, when, during a Coast Guard inspection of the vessel in Bayonne, the chief engineer and second engineer lied to inspectors and told lower-level crew members to lie as well.

The ship's chief engineer burned a notebook containing soundings information in order to hide the information from the Coast Guard, authorities also said. 

About a quarter of the $4 million penalty has been set aside for restoration of the environment around Newark Bay. 

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