$1M Set Aside For Jersey Coast After Shipping Company Fined For Pollution

An Italian shipping company will pay a $4 million fine for dumping oily waste and other pollutants into the ocean and lying about it to the Coast Guard during a 2015 inspection in Bayonne, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito said in a statement Wednesday.

Newark Bay. Part of the fine to be paid by an Italian shipper for polluting will be on coastal restoration efforts in New Jersey.
Photo Credit: *Wikipedia*

Paul Milo

04/17/2019 3:11 p.m.

The company, d'Amico Shipping Italia S.p.A., pleaded guilty to violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships. In addition to the fine, the company will be subjected to oversight by a court-appointed monitor for four years.

The oil tanker Cielo di Milano made repeated stops at ports in New Jersey, Maryland and Florida. From 2014 to 2016, the company used two different methods to illegally dispose of waste, dumping which in some cases occurred within 200 nautical miles of the U.S. coast, within what's known as an exclusive economic zone.

The company admitted that workers falsified the Oil Record Book, a log inspected by the Coast Gaurd. During one Coast Guard inspection of the vessel in Bayonne, in January 2015, the ship's chief engineer and second engineer lied to inspectors and told lower-level crew members to lie as well.

Crew members also hid equipment used in the illegal discharges when the ship entered port.

About a quarter of the $4 million penalty will be used for coastal restoration in New Jersey, including restoration of the shoreline around Newark Bay.

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