AML Ship Management Fined for Dumping Waste off Alaska

German shipping company AML Ship Management GmBH has been ordered to pay USD 800,000 fine for dumping oily bilge water off the coast of Alaska.

Pursuant to the sentence, the Hamburg-based company violated the ‘Clean Water Act’ and the ‘Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships’ in 2014 by releasing 4,500 gallons of oily bilge into the ocean, some 165 nautical miles south of the Aleutian Islands,  the U.S. Attorney Karen Loeffler’s office said.

Of the total fine, USD 675,000 will be paid in criminal fines whereas the rest USD 125,000 will be paid to Alaska SeaLife Center as a community restitution.

AML Ship Management and the chief engineer on board one of its vessels pleaded guilty to illegally dumping oily water off Alaska in February.

Namely, Nicolas Sassin, the chief engineer on the AML-operated ship City of Tokyo, used an illegal pump system to dump 4,500 gallons untreated oily bilge water over the side of the ship on August 29, 2014 bypassing the oil-water separator and other pollution control equipment, thus violating federal clean water law.

AML and Sassin were also charged for giving false pollution records to the U.S. Coast Guard when the vessel docked in Portland, Oregon.

In line with the sentence, the German shipping company was ordered to set up an environmental plan and was put under probation for three years, the Alaska Dispatch News writes.

Sassin, who was facing a six-month jail sentence, as proposed by the prosecutors, got a five-month house arrest sentence and five years of probation.

World Maritime News Staff