The American Waterways Operators (AWO), the national trade association for the tugboat, towboat and barge industry, hails the decision yesterday by the U.S. District Court, Massachusetts District, to grant Summary Judgment against a 2004 Massachusetts oil spill law…
Polar Tankers Inc., a subsidiary of ConocoPhillips Co., has agreed to pay $588,000 to help compensate the public for environmental harm caused by the October 2004 crude oil spill into Puget Sound’s Dalco Passage near Tacoma. The payment…
The Coast Guard adjourned the formal hearings, Thursday, March 11, concerning the Jan. 23, 2010, incident involving the tank vessel Eagle Otome, the Gull Arrow and the tug Dixie Vengeance. The incident resulted in more than 400,000 gallons of oil being spilled into the Sabine-Neches waterway…
Riverkeeper, a New York clean water advocate, commended the New York City Council for passing Int. 54-A, a bill substantially increasing penalties for illegal dumping in New York City Waters. The bill, passed unanimously by the City Council…
The Federal Maritime Commission announced four compromise agreements in which an ocean carrier and intermediaries agreed to pay a total of $625,000 in civil penalties for alleged violations of the Shipping Act of 1984. The agreements were reached…
Canada’s Transport Minister John Baird announced that as part of Canada’s Northern Strategy, the federal government is proposing a regulated Arctic traffic zone, requiring certain vessels to report information to authorities as they pass through Canada’s northern waters…
An Italian subsidiary of a U.S.-based company has agreed to plead guilty and to pay a $2.29m criminal fine for participating in a conspiracy to rig bids, fix prices and allocate market shares of marine hose sold in the United States and elsewhere…
The owner of a tug that released oily bilge water into the Columbia River last year is being penalized $21,000 by the Washington Department of Ecology. Sound Freight Lines’ tug Black Hawk discharged an estimated 150 gallons of lubricating and…
The Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure conducted a hearing on Asian carp and the Great Lakes. In his statement, Representative James Oberstar (D-MN) discussed the threat posed by the Asian carp to the Great Lakes ecosystem…
The International Bunker Industry Association (IBIA) has moved quickly to dispel the apparent confusion currently surrounding implementation of the EU directive requiring all ships to use low-sulphur fuel while at berth in EU ports.EU Directive 2005/33/EC requires that…
His Honour Judge Elwen at Truro Crown Court sentenced George Pill Sr., 61, to six months jail for each of the two offenses he plead guilty to and costs of £8,500.On the 22nd August 2008 a Surveyor from the Maritime & Coastguard Agency (MCA)…
Governor Sean Parnell has directed the Department of Law to ask the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals for permission to intervene in the lawsuit by environmental groups challenging the U.S. Interior Department’s decision to approve an oil exploration plan for the Chukchi Sea…
By Vincent J. Foley- New York and Patricia L. 'Pat' Goughan- San Francisco, of Holland & Knight.On December 22, 2009, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that it had finalized the new emission and fuel standards for Category 3 marine diesel engines proposed last summer…
The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California ruled that the non-retention vessels in the Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet, operated by the U.S. Maritime Administration (MARAD), are point sources subject to the permitting requirements…
According to the American Waterways Operators Association (AWO) and the Waterway Council, Inc. (WCI), legislation was recently introduced in the House of Representatives that would devastate the Great Lakes economy, jeopardizing businesses and thousands of jobs in the economically strapped region…
