Maritrans fined for spill in Columbia River

Maritrans fined for spill in Columbia River The Tampa-based marine petroleum transport company Maritrans Inc. has been fined $13,000 by the state of Washington for a 50-gallon waste spill incident in the Columbia River in Vancouver, Wash. Last November.
   According to a report in the Vancouver newspaper The Columbian, an official from the state Department of Ecology spill response program said the spill was the result of a mistake by the ship's engineer. Crew members were pumping bilge slop from the ship's engine room to a slop tank near the engine room and then left a valve open. State officials also commended the crew for acting quickly contain the spill and report it to authorities.
   A statement from Maritrans vice president of operations Norm Gauslow said “We have implemented lessons learned from this incident and have changed our procedures to prevent this kind of oil spill from occurring again.”