Update: Chief Engineer Jailed for Using Magic Hose

zoom Noly Torato Vidad, the Chief Engineer of the car carrier Selene Leader, received an eight-month prison sentence, followed by one year of supervised release, after the Baltimore District Judge Catherine C. Blake found him guilty of obstruction of justice and violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships (APPS). The 45-year-old Filipino citizen was the Chief Engineer and Ireneo Tomo Tuale was the first engineer on board the vessel, which was operated by the Japanese company Hachiuma Steamship between August 2013, and the end of January 2014. According to his plea agreement and other court documents, in January 2014, engine room crew members of the M/V Selene Leader, under the supervision of Vidad and Tuale, transferred oily wastes between oil tanks on board the ship using rubber hoses and then illegally bypassed pollution control equipment and discharged the oily wastes overboard into the ocean. Before such waste can be discharged into the sea, the law requires that it must first pass through an oil water separator, and the operation must be recorded in the vessel’s oil record book for inspection by the United States Coast Guard. When the Coast Guard boarded the vessel in Baltimore on January 31, 2014, Vidad tried to obstruct the Coast Guard’s investigation and hide the illegal discharges of oil by falsifying the oil record book, destroying documents, lying to Coast Guard investigators, and instructing subordinate crew members to lie to the Coast Guard. The Hachiuma Steamship previously pleaded guilty to violating the APPS and agreed to pay a USD 1.8 million penalty. The company was also placed on probation for three years during which it is to develop an environmental compliance program. Ireneo Tomo Tuale, age 63, also of the Philippines, previously pleaded guilty to his participation in the scheme and is scheduled to be sentenced in federal court in Baltimore on March 3, 2015.