Spanish tanker firm fined $2 million for pollution

Spanish tanker firm fined $2 million for pollution    The Spanish operator of an oceangoing chemical tanker ship was sentenced Monday in federal court to pay a fine of more than $2 million for pollution.
   The Justice Department said Consultores de Navegacion, the operator of the Nautilus, will also serve three years of probation for criminal violations related to the overboard discharge of oil-contaminated bilge waste on the high seas.
   The company pleaded guilty on April 6 to conspiracy, falsification of records, obstruction, and two violations of the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships for failing to maintain an accurate oil record book. The practice of improperly handling and disposing of oil-contaminated waste from the tanker took place from at least June 2007 until March 2008.
   Along with the $2.08 million fine, the court ordered the company to implement comprehensive environmental compliance plan to prevent future violations.
   According to the government from June 2007 to March 2008 senior engineers on the Nautilus directed subordinate engine room crewmembers to use a metal pipe to bypass the ship's oil water separator to discharge oil-contaminated waste directly overboard. On two occasions in August 2007, Vadym Tumakov, a Ukranian who at that time served as chief engineer of the Nautilus, directed the discharge of pollution overboard. In addition, in February 2008, Carmelo Oria, a Spanish citizen who served as chief engineer at that time, directed a discharge directly overboard from the ship's bilge wells.
   Oria, who was the chief engineer on the Nautilus from January to March 2008, pleaded guilty to maintaining an oil record book that concealed the improper discharge of untreated waste directly from the ship's bilges and was sentenced on May 6, to serve one month in prison. Tumakov pleaded guilty to using falsified records that concealed improper discharges of oil-contaminated bilge waste from the ship and was sentenced on April 13 to serve one week in prison and was fined $2,000.