Sabine Transportation fined $2 million for dumping oily waste

Sabine Transportation fined $2 million for dumping oily waste    The U.S. Justice Department ordered Sabine Transportation Co. to pay a $2 million penalty for illegally dumping thousands of gallons of waste oil, hundreds of tons of diesel-contaminated grain, and plastic wastes into the ocean.
   The carrier, based in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, admitted to dumping the waste from its vessels, the “Trinity,” “Juneau,” “Sea Princess,” and “Colorado,” without the use of required pollution prevention equipment. The dumping was also concealed from the company’s records.
   Crewmembers reported the dumping incidents to the Coast Guard in June 1998 and March 1999. During the sentencing of Sabine Transportation, the court acknowledged that the whistleblowers risked their careers in the industry by reporting the illegal acts of their employer. U.S. District judge Mark W. Bennett, who ruled on the case, awarded half of the $2 million fine to the three former Sabine Transportation crewmembers who reported the crimes to the Coast Guard.
   Last year, Sabine Transportation also pled guilty in the Eastern District of Louisiana to a violation of the Clean Water Act based on the dumping of hundreds of tons of rust scale, tank cleaning wastes and other oily wastes into the Mississippi River during a tank cleaning operation.