Companies fined for discharging contaminates into marine harbour waters

Three companies responsible for the discharge of light fuel oil from a ship into the waters of the coastal marine area in Timaru Harbour have been fined in total $30,000.

The fishing vessel Pacinui was refuelling its main engine when 171 litres of light fuel oil were discharged into the harbour from the starboard side of the ship.

Juham Industries Co Ltd chartered and managed the Pacinui, Sanford Limited sub-chartered the vessel and PPMH Korea Inc is the owner of the vessel.

After 1800 litres of light fuel oil had been pumped into the vessel, the engineer on board was spotted waving his arms to raise the alarm. The fuel supply was stopped immediately and it was found that fuel oil had entered the water of the harbour.

A quantity of ECOLAB Degresol 201 was poured into the water by the crew of the vessel in an attempt to disperse the oil. This was contrary to instructions, because this product is not approved by Maritime New Zealand for dispersing oil in New Zealand waters.

Staff then pulled absorbent booms and equipment from the Sanford response trailer. The oil was 90 percent contained within absorbent booms and by absorbent pads and pillows.

In passing judgement, Judge P R Kellar recognised that considerable efforts were undertaken by a number of people to contain the spill and that the ship’s management was co-operative throughout the investigation. The effects of human error were mitigated as a result of the alarm raised by a lookout and by the prompt, detailed attention to the clean-up.

However, Judge Kellar also noted that had staff followed correct procedures, the spill would not have occurred.

Environment Canterbury Resource Management Director Kim Drummond said that threats to Canterbury’s marine life and coastal waters are taken very seriously.

“The environment affected by an oil spill such as this go beyond what can be seen on the surface. The oil can have significant detrimental effects on the ecology and the recreational values of the foreshore and seabed within the harbour. Clean-ups can be very costly, time-consuming and residual effects can remain in the local environment for some time. In this case we were fortunate and many of the actions taken were commendable, but the situation could easily have been much more serious.

“International charterers, NZ sub-charterers as well as the vessel owners all have responsibilities to ensure environmentally safe procedures are followed whenever their vessels are in NZ waters.”