Shipping Company Sentenced In New Orleans Pollution Case

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A Japanese shipping company has been placed on probation for three years and ordered to pay a $500,000 fine for obstruction and violating a federal pollution control act.

U.S. Attorney Jim Letten says U.S. District Judge Lance M. Africk handed down the penalty Thursday against CSL Maritime, S.A., headquartered in Tokyo. The company pleaded guilty March 29 to charges in a two-count bill of information for violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships.

CSL owned and operated the M/V FD Jacques Graubart which arrived at the Port of New Orleans in January. CSL admitted that on two occasions in December 2011, crews pumped oily bilge water into the sea without using required pollution prevention equipment. The crew later hid the illegal discharges by falsifying the vessel's oil record book.