Italian shipping company fined in pollution case

Italian shipping company B.Navi Ship Management Services (B.Navi) was sentenced Wednesday to pay $1.5 million and serve three years probation in connection with the illegal dumping of oily sludge, bilge wastes, and oil-contaminated ballast water from the Windsor Castle, a 27,000-gross-ton bulk carrier vessel.

According to the plea agreements, on Aug. 17, 2007, the Windsor Castle arrived at port in Houston, and was boarded by the U.S. Coast Guard. During the boarding, Coast Guard inspectors learned that the vessel's chief engineer had ordered crew members to dump oil sludge and bilge wastes into the ocean and had falsified the ship抯 oil record book to conceal these discharges. 

Source: American Shipper