Oil spill case a win for state waters
A whistle-blower's courage and federal prosecutors in Alaska have given Washington state some extra protection against oil spills in local waters.
And their actions have resulted in something that didn't happen after a mysterious spill blackened Vashon Island beaches three years ago: criminal accountability for ConocoPhillips, the nation's third-largest oil company.
For the next three years, the company's five huge tankers will operate under the collective gaze of a court-appointed monitor, officials from the U.S. Probation Office, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Anchorage, an independent auditor and the Coast Guard.
Every aspect of ship operations is due to be scrutinized, recorded on paper and observed during shipboard visits, according to a 75-page plea agreement and attachments. The company must also install more safety devices on ships designed to prevent spills.
ConocoPhillips tankers regularly visit refineries in Washington and elsewhere carrying tens of millions of gallons of Alaskan crude oil.
Failure to comply with probation could result in felony prosecution, according to court documents, although compliance could shorten the probation period by a year.
ConocoPhillips must pay for the scrutiny program and the improvements, at an estimated cost of $5 million, including changes it had previously made, according to court documents.
None of the new requirements is the direct result of the October 2004 spill in Dalco Passage in southern Puget Sound, which was discovered in the middle of the night by a tugboat captain.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jim Oesterle, who investigated that case, said he has no doubt that ConocoPhillips caused the spill, estimated at 1,000 gallons, and he believes that the new requirements are what lawyers in his Seattle office would have imposed had they proved it.
But instead, ConocoPhillips got tagged for a much smaller spill, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean in January 2004. After that spill, ship's officers conducted an elaborate cover-up that was caught on videotape.
Oesterle said the federal government decided, as both investigations proceeded, to concentrate on getting criminal sanctions against ConocoPhillips for the midocean spill, rather than the Dalco Passage mishap, because they "had more evidence" of the midocean event.
"I would just say generally, from a combination of witness testimony and various documentary evidence, we had a very strong case," said Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Todd Mikolop, who handled the midocean investigation as a special assistant U.S. attorney in Anchorage.
In the Dalco Passage case, ConocoPhillips paid civil penalties to the federal and state governments but never admitted causing it. Chemical analysis pointed to a ConocoPhillips ship -- the Polar Texas -- as the only suspect.
Unlike the Dalco Passage event, though, the company was unable to avoid culpability for the midocean spill because of the actions of whistle-blower Jim Legg, a crew member who will receive half the $500,000 fine ConocoPhillips must pay for the spill.
ConocoPhillips also must donate $2 million to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.
Continue reading this article from the Seattle P-I:
Oil spill case a win for state waters
