Fines will aid Sound projects

OLYMPIA – Nearly $3 million will go to 14 conservation projects around Puget Sound as a result of a settlement with an international shipping company that violated pollution laws in the state.

Part of the money – $1.7 million – is from last year’s settlement between the U.S. Department of Justice and one of the world’s largest shipping lines, which violated pollution laws in the state in 2001. The projects, announced Wednesday, will also receive nearly $1.3 million in matching federal, state and private contributions, officials said.

The money is from $25 million paid to five states by Panama-based Evergreen International, which pleaded guilty in April 2005 to more than two dozen counts of illegal dumping around the United States. Evergreen International is the parent company of Taiwan-based Evergreen Marine, whose ships did the illegal dumping.

The amount is one of the largest fines ever imposed on a company that deliberately polluted the ocean.

Washington state was among five jurisdictions affected by the pollution, along with Los Angeles, Newark, N.J., Portland and Charleston, S.C.

Federal officials said that Evergreen obstructed Coast Guard inspections and altered records. The company entered its plea in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles to 24 felony counts and one misdemeanor.

The investigation of Evergreen ships and companies began on March 4, 2001, after the discovery of approximately 500 gallons of oil in the Columbia River near Kalama, Wash. Inspectors with the Washington state Department of Ecology discovered an Evergreen ship was using a removable pipe to dump oil waste into the water. Similar pipes were discovered on at least seven other Evergreen ships, officials said.

The 14 projects will be funded by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation’s Puget Sound Marine Conservation Fund, which was established last year as part of the settlement.

“It’s a demonstration of something good coming out of some very bad conduct,” U.S. Attorney John McKay said of the projects.

The projects include the restoration of several estuaries, the removal of derelict fishing gear from certain area waterways and providing for teacher training about marine conservation.

“These restoration projects have to be done if we’re going to restore Puget Sound,” said Jay Manning, Ecology Department director. “This fine money is taking pressure off of other funding sources.”

McKay said the state received an additional $3 million that went into a fund for crime victims.