Puerto Rican-Based Shipping Co to Pay $700K for Oil Pollution
On August 18, 2011, the Justice Department announced that Epps Shipping Company, a Liberian corporation doing business out of Puerto Rico has been sentenced to pay a $700,000 criminal penalty and has been placed on five years of supervised probation…
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for violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships and making false statements to U.S. Coast Guard inspectors. Epps owned and controlled the M/V Carib Vision, a commercial ship that was engaged in the transportation of molasses throughout the Caribbean region. A Coast Guard investigation found that the crew of the vessel used the emergency bilge discharge system to dump its oily waste directly overboard without first processing it through the ship’s pollution prevention equipment as required. During probation, Epps will have to implement a comprehensive Environmental Compliance Plan to continuously monitor and evaluate pollution prevention from any ship it owns or operates.