A barge owner has pleaded guilty in his case in a District Court in Tacoma to a number of violations of the Clean Water Act, including failure to report an oil leak of which he had full knowledge, and illegally leaking oil into the Columbia River in the state of Washington. Together, the charges are punishable by up to six years in prison or a substantial fine.
Bret A. Simpson, the owner of the barge, admitted in court that he had been informed about the oil leak on his vessel, the Davy Crockett, by crew members when the barge was being salvaged. Simpson however neglected to remove existing oil from his vessel before it was salvaged. In early 2010, after an oil spill occurred from the remains of the vessel, Simpson did not notify the relevant authorities and took no actions to stop the oil spill.
In January 2011, further oil spills emitting from the Davy Crockett lead to local authorities notifying the US Coast Guard. After conducting an investigation, the coast guard determined that the Davy Crockett was indeed the source of the leak and a cleanup funded by the federal government was commenced. The US government spent over $20 million dollars on the cleanup operation, and a salvage mission to remove the remains of the barge from the Columbia River.
Simpson plead guilty to the charges in court today. His sentencing is scheduled for the 12 October, 2012. The Davy Crockett is a former US Navy vessel that had been converted into a large flat deck barge. Simpson’s company, Principle Metals, a scrap and salvage business, planned to destroy the barge and sell the scrap metal.
A crew was assembled to cut the barge apart at the place where it was situated in the Columbia River in October 2010. According to the court findings, Simpson was aware that the vessel contained a number of oil storage tanks that were filled with thousands of liters of oil and diesel. He however made no arrangements to empty the storage tanks before his company began to reassemble the vessel.
While the vessel was being cut apart, one of Simpson’s employees cut into a storage tank releasing thousands of gallons of oil into the surrounding water. Neither Simpson nor his employees took any action to notify authorities of the leak or prevent further leaks from occurring. Simpson’s response to the incident was simply to cease scrapping operations on the vessel.
