Chemical tanker engineers convicted in pollution case

The Justice Department said a federal jury in Charleston, S.C. on Wednesday convicted two chief engineers of the vessel Green Sky of falsifying documents to conceal illegal discharges of oily bilge waste and obstruction charges.    The Justice Department said a federal jury in Charleston, S.C. on Wednesday convicted two chief engineers of the vessel Green Sky of falsifying documents to conceal illegal discharges of oily bilge waste and obstruction charges.
   Herbert Julian, who served as chief engineer of the vessel from Aug. 3 to Sept. 4, 2015, was convicted of two felony counts under the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships (APPS) and for obstruction of justice, while Panagiotis Koutoukakis, chief engineer from Feb. 1 to Aug. 3, 2015, was convicted of two felony counts, one for APPS and another for falsifying records.
   The Green Sky is a Liberian-flagged chemical tanker. According to the U.S. government, the vessel first set sail in July 2014, and suffered “unusual internal leaks that produced greater quantities of oily waste than a normal ship of its age and construction.”
   Oily bilge waste must be removed from the vessel or it will fill the bottom of a ship’s engine room, causing damage to equipment and risking the operational safety of the ship. However, U.S. law does not allow an oceangoing vessel to discharge oily wastes directly into the sea.
   “The evidence presented to the jury showed that the Green Sky was regularly pumping contaminated and oily water directly overboard. None of these discharges were disclosed as required. The oil record book of the Green Sky was falsified to cover-up illegal overboard discharges of oily wastes from February to August 2015,” the Justice Department said.
   On Nov. 22, 2016, the Green Sky’s operator, Aegean Shipping Management, pleaded guilty to one APPS count for the illegal discharges and one obstruction count based on misrepresentations made by the vessel’s captain to the U.S. Coast Guard during an August 2015 boarding.
   The corporate vessel operator had been indicted along with the individuals on July 15, 2016, and has agreed to pay a $2 million penalty, which includes a criminal fine and restitution to Gray’s Reef National Marine Sanctuary. The company will also be sentenced to probation and an environmental compliance plan.
   Sentencing of the company and defendants Julian and Koutoukakis will take place at a later date. At trial, Nikolaos Bounovas, the ship’s second engineer, was acquitted of all charges, while Capt. Genaro Anciano’s sentencing has yet to be scheduled, the Justice Department said.