Fishers Island Ferry District Agrees To Fine
Published on 3/24/2007 in Home »Region »Region News Of the New London Day
The Fishers Island Ferry District has agreed to pay a fine of $186,417, plus interest, to settle a lawsuit over the dumping of raw sewage into local waters from 2000 to 2004.
Kevin O'Connor, U.S. attorney for Connecticut, brought the lawsuit on behalf of the Coast Guard, which had uncovered the sewage dumping from the ferries Race Point and Munnatawket during an unannounced July 2004 inspection. The charges were civil violations of the federal Rivers and Harbors Act, which prohibits discharges of waste from any ship into navigable waters.
The settlement, announced Friday, concludes 21/2 years of investigation and legal actions stemming from the dumping into the Thames River and Long Island Sound. Tom Carson, spokesman for O'Connor, said no further charges are expected.
Last year, the U.S. Attorney's Office successfully prosecuted criminal charges against the ferry district's operations manager, Mark Easter, for violations of the federal Clean Water Act for allowing hundreds of thousands of gallons of raw sewage to flow out of holding tank valves from onboard toilets and sinks deliberately left open.
Easter, who pleaded guilty, was sentenced last January to 30 days in prison and fined $10,000.
According to the settlement, the district will pay the fine in four installments. With interest, the fine totals $200,000. The first payment was made March 1, according to a news release from O'Connor's office, and the last is due March 1, 2010.
Ferry District attorney Richard Smith Jr. declined to comment on the settlement Friday. Reynolds DuPont Jr., chairman of the district's board of birectors, could not be reached for comment. The district, a municipal agency, recently announced a 40 percent increase in the tax it levies on island property owners for its operations.
The district has its main terminal in downtown New London, providing the only daily service to the island, and another terminal on the island. Fishers Island is part of the town of Southold, N.Y., on Long Island.
Coast Guard Capt. Peter J. Boynton, captain of the port and commander of Coast Guard Sector Long Island Sound, said he was pleased that the dumping case had been fully prosecuted.
"The United States Coast Guard takes the prevention of maritime pollution very seriously and is firmly committed to the protection and preservation of the marine environment in Long Island Sound," Boynton said. "We hope that this settlement will serve as a deterrent to others."
Maritime laws would have allowed the U.S. Attorney to seize the two ferries if the district did not respond to the lawsuit, Carson said.
The Coast Guard began its investigation after it received a call from a recreational boater who saw the sewage as one of the ferries was traversing is five-mile route. The Coast Guard concluded that the valves on the holding tanks of the toilets on the ferry's two vessels were routinely left open, releasing an estimated 472,000 gallons while the ferries were making the crossing several times daily between 2000 and 2004.
j.benson@theday.com
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