Pilot Sentenced For Cosco Busan Oil Spill
Photo by Dave Patten
18 July 2009
by Anai Rhoads
AnaiRhoads.org -- A pilot who inflicted damage to a 65,131-ton Hong Kong-registered container ship, was sentenced to 10 months in federal prison by U.S. District Court Judge Susan Illston for the Northern District of California Friday.
On 07 November 2007, John Joseph Cota caused the 900-foot long Cosco Busan to collide with the San Francisco Bay Bridge, which subsequently discharged 53,000 gallons of oil into the San Francisco Bay.
The oil spill killed more than 2,400 birds of about 50 species, which included Brown Pelicans, Marbled Murrelets and Western Grebes. The Brown Pelican is a federally endangered species and the Marbled Murrelet is a federally threatened species and an endangered species under California law.
Cota, who was licensed by the Coast Guard and California as a Bar Pilot bar pilot at the time of the collision, gave unclear commands resulting in the Cosco Busan crash with the bridge. He pleaded guilty for violating the Clean Water Act (CWA), which was amended by the Oil Spill Act of 1990. In addition, Cota pleaded guilty to violating the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, by causing the death of protected species of migratory birds.
"Captain Cota abandoned ship by not following required safety procedures which then resulted in an environmental disaster" said John C. Cruden, Acting Assistant Attorney for the Justice Department's Environment and Natural Resources Division.
Prosecutors told Judge Illston that Cota should receive a sentence of incarceration because he was "guilty of far more than a mere slip-up or an otherwise innocuous mistake that yielded unforeseeable grave damage. Rather, he made a series of intentional and negligent acts and omissions, both before and leading up to the incident that produced a disaster that, as widespread as it was, could have had even worse consequences."
Cota claimed that the radar was unreliable due to excessive fog in the area that morning. He also failed to contact the master or the Coast Guard to announce that he believed the equipment had failed. However, images were retained on the ship's computer revealed that the radar was fully functional. Despite the heavy fog, Cota made the decision to leave while pilots of other commercial vessels decided not to depart because visibility was less than 0.5 nautical miles.
Court documents show that Cota did nothing to assure the fortification of the bridge or bow watch. Nor did he review the passage plan with the master and crew of the Cosco Busan. More notably, he failed to have a master-pilot exchange to review the transit plan.
According to prosecutors, Cota also failed to disclose his medical conditions and prescription drug use on required annual forms submitted to the Coast Guard.
"The court's sentence of John Cota should serve as a deterrent to shipping companies and mariners who think violating the environmental laws that protect our nation's waterways will go undetected or unpunished," said Joseph P. Russoniello, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California. "They will be vigorously prosecuted."
The grand jury indictment also charged Hong Kong's Fleet Management Limited, a ship management firm. The firm is accused of obstruction of justice and is charged with providing false statements. The trial for that case will be heard 14 September.
The investigation has been conducted by the Coast Guard Investigative Service, the EPA Criminal Investigation Division, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the California Department of Fish and Game, Office of Spill Prevention and Response.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Stacey Geis and Jonathan Schmidt and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Tribolet of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California, and Richard A. Udell, Senior Trial Attorney with the Environmental Crimes Section of the U.S. Department of Justice.
| 
