MST Mineralien Schiffahrt Spedition Und Transport, operator of the M/V Cornelia has been charged for violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships (APPS).
The German ship operation company has been charged with failure to maintain an accurate ship record about the disposal of oil-contaminated waste and presenting falsified records to the United States Coast Guard (USCG).
Between February 2015 and October 2015, the M/V Cornelia experienced significant leakages of oily waste-water and accumulated a substantial volume of machinery space bilge water. It has been reported that on at least ten occasions during this period, members of the engine room crew were instructed to transfer machinery space bilge water from the dirty bilge tank to the clean bilge tank (designed to only contain clean, oil-free water) and discharge the oil waste water overboard.
On each occasion in which oily waste-water was transferred internally and then discharged overboard, the Chief Engineer intentionally failed to record the transfers and subsequent discharges of oily waste-water in the M/V Cornelia’s Oil Record Book (ORB). This gave the false impression in the ORB that all of the oily waste-water had been properly handled and disposed.
During these transfers and discharges, on at least one occasion in May 2015, was the ship operating within the Great Lakes.
The United States Coast Guard (USCG) were presented with the omissions and false entries during a Port State Control (PSC) examination on the vessel on November 3, 2015 while the ship was docked at the Port of Duluth, Minnestoa, US.
Ship Efficiency Review News
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