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CRUISE INDUSTRY
Workers
charged in dumping case
BY LARRY LEBOWITZ
llebowitz@herald.com
A
federal grand jury Thursday indicted three Norwegian Cruise Line
engineers for concealing the overboard dumping of waste oil from the SS
Norway in 2000 -- crimes that have already cost the company $1.5 million
in criminal penalties.
''Today's charges are necessary to show both companies and individuals
operating and managing ships that they may not pollute our oceans and
lie to our government,'' said Assistant Attorney General Thomas
Samsonetti.
Chief
Engineers Knut Sorboe and Peter Solemdal and Senior First Engineer Aage
Lokkebraten, are charged with failing to maintain an oil record book and
falsely reporting overboard discharges of oil-contaminated bilge.
All
three face up to five years in prison and $25,000 in fines. Sorboe and
Solemdal no longer work for NCL.
NCL
pleaded guilty in August 2002 for its role in the dumping scheme, paid a
$1 million fine and agreed to perform $500,000 in community service
while on three years probation.
The
company admitted employees maintained false books and deliberately used
fresh water to ''trick'' a mechanical oil sensor designed to detect and
limit overboard discharges.
A
former NCL second engineer who blew the whistle on the scheme was given
a $250,000 cut of the fine. Finn E. Bergendahl went to the Environmental
Protection Agency in late 1999 with reams of information and a self-made
videotape showing how employees were bypassing a crucial oil-water
separator.
U.S. District Judge Joan Lenard granted the reward under the Act to
Prevent Pollution from Ships. Bergendahl, who was fired by NCL prior to
the whistle-blowing report, still works in the industry. |
