A U.S. District Court in Anchorage has fined the owner and operator of a seafood processing vessel $50,000 for intentionally discharging oily bilge water and raw sewage into the ocean and then presenting false records to the U.S. Coast Guard.
The decision handed down on March 21 against East West Seafoods LLC of Seattle also placed the company on probation for five years for violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships, the Clean Water Act, and the Refuse Act.
The court also sentenced Christos Tsabouris, 78, of Kodiak, the 75 percent owner of East West Seafoods and operator of the F/V Pacific Producer, was fined $10,000 and also ordered to serve five years probation for his role in the offenses.
Acting U.S. Attorney Bryan Schroder said that on March 15, 2013, the F/V Pacific Producer was traveling from Kodiak and grounded near Ouzinkie Narrows. While within three miles of shore, the defendants unlawfully discharged about 1,000 gallons of raw sewage into Chiniak Bay between Long Island and Spruce Island, Schroder said.
On March 29, 2013, while departing from Ouzinkie, the defendants knowingly discharged oil into the water within three miles of shore, causing a sheen on the surface of the water. The defendants regularly used an illegal pump system to knowingly discharge oily bilge water directly overboard, he said.
The defendants were also found guilty of knowingly failing to maintain an accurate Oil Record Book as required by the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships. They failed to record the discharges of oil into the sea by way of that illegal pump system, the transfers and storage of waste oil from a 55 gallon barrel in the illegal pump system to the engine room sludge tank and the inoperability of the Oil Water Separator. They knowingly presented the false and fictitious Oil Record Book to the Coast Guard when the F/V Pacific Producer was in Kodiak on Jan. 27, 2014, he said.
When the Coast Guard boarded the F/V Pacific Producer in Kodiak on Jan. 27, 2014, there was raw sewage flowing from piping onto the open weather deck. There was a vent pipe that discharged raw sewage onto the weather deck and onto the side of the vessel into the water. The defendants also unlawfully discharged raw sewage from the vessel into St. Paul Harbor while the vessel was within three miles of shore without a permit, authorities said.
Schroder said that his office would continue enforcement of federal laws, including the Clean Water Act, the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships, and the Refuse Act, to protect the pristine waters of Alaska from intentional discharges of oil and raw sewage.
