Judge Fines Shipping Firm for Harbor Oil Spill

A shipping company has been ordered to pay almost $100,000 as a result of a 1991 accident in which 12,000 gallons of oil poured into Los Angeles Harbor, polluting a five-mile stretch of water and costing $18 million to clean up.

Los Angeles Municipal Court Judge Jon N. Mayeda ordered the Pan Ocean Shipping Co. to pay a $35,000 fine, $59,000 in penalty assessments and $5,500 in investigative costs to the Port of Los Angeles police after the company pleaded no contest to violating state oil spill prevention laws.

The spill occurred during the transfer of bunker oil from the Olympic L, a fuel barge operated by Links Marine Inc., to tanks aboard the Sammi Superstars ship.

“It is the responsibility of a crew member on a ship being bunkered to monitor the operation in order to prevent spillage,” said City Atty. James Hahn, who prosecuted the case along with Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti and Deputy City Atty. Vincent Sato.

“But the investigation shows that no signal was given by the ship to the fuel barge when the tank overflowed.

“In addition, regulations require that scuppers, which are holes on deck that lead out to openings in the hull, be closed during bunkering in order to contain any spill on the deck,” Hahn said. “But on the Sammi Superstars, they were open and the spilled fuel flowed through them and over the side into the water.”

The spill eventually extended five miles across the harbor, polluting the waters of 12 marinas including Island Yacht, Fellows, Terminal Island, Newmark’s Yacht, Lighthouse Yacht, Yacht Haven and California Yacht and Holiday Harbor.

State fish and game officials said 61 shore birds died as a result of the spill and that dozens of other birds were stricken but were rescued and saved. About 1,000 privately owned boats and seven merchant ships also were damaged.