Environmental Law

Oil Rigs and Environmental Crimes

By Walter James

On October 9, 2007, in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Beaumont Division, Rowan Companies, Inc. pled guilty to three felonies under the Clean Water Act in connection with the routine discharge of pollutants and garbage into the Gulf of Mexico from one of the firm?s oil rigs. Rowan will pay a $7,000,000.00 fine and make community service payments totaling $1,000,000.00 to five

state government enforcement organizations for the purposes of environmental training, education, and enforcement coordination. Rowan will also make a community service payment of $1,000,000.00 to the National Marine Sanctuaries Foundation to be used for preservation and protection projects at the Flower Garden and Stetson Banks National Marine Sanctuary located in the Gulf of Mexico off the coasts of Texas and Louisiana. Rowan will also, as a condition of its probation, reorganize its corporate structure to add an environmental division and to implement a comprehensive environmental compliance plan that will be applicable to all of its rigs. Finally, Rowan will develop new sandblasting techniques and help establish new industry standards for the minimization and containment of sandblasting debris over water.

The government?s investigation revealed that between 2002 and 2004, employees on the Rig Midland routinely discharged waste hydraulic oil mixed with water, used paint, paint cans, and other pollutants and garbage into the Gulf of Mexico and failed to notify the government of the discharges in violation of the Clean Water Act and the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships. The charges associated with these violations were filed in the Eastern District of Texas. Rowan also plead guilty in the Eastern District of Louisiana to one CWA felony count for discharging pollutants into the Sabine River as a result of sand blasting operations used to clean the rig in Port Fourchon in 2004.

In addition to the company pleading guilty, nine employees of Rowan who worked on the Rig Midland pled guilty to charges related to Rowan?s violations. Carl Smith, James Rawson, Warren James, and Randy Hoover each pled guilty to negligently discharging pollutants into United States waters in violation of the CWA in connection to the sandblasting operations and agreed to pay a $2,500.00 fine. David Burcham and Murphy Comardelle each pled guilty to a failure to report knowledge of a felony in connection with the illegal discharges of waste oil from the Rig Midland, and agreed to pay $5,000.00 in criminal fines. Terry Glen Fox and Michael Friend pled guilty to misdemeanor charges for negligently discharging waste oil into United States waters in violation of the CWA and agreed to pay $2,500.00 in fines. Michael Freeman pled guilty to a felony violation of the CWA for knowingly discharging waste oil into United States waters and faces a maximum fine of $250,000.00, the exact amount to be determined by the Court.

More later.

As always, feel free to give me a call or e-mail me at walter.james@jamespllc.com.

WDJiii

Full post as published by Environmental Crimes Blog on October 10, 2007 (boomark / email).