‘These are not those typical big fake checks,” said U.S. Attorney Chris Christie before an assembled crowd at the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission (NJMC) on August 10. “I bring the real thing.”
With that comment, Christie presented Amanda Bassow, the Eastern Region program director for the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, with two checks totaling $1.65 million to be used to help fund local conservation programs located in the Hudson-Raritan Estuary, which includes the Meadowlands and Newark Bay.
The money was collected as criminal pollution penalties from two shipping firms caught dumping oil and sludge into local waters. One firm, the Singapore-based Wallenius Ship Management Pte Ltd., was fined $1.5 million in community service fees that ultimately went to the wildlife foundation, as well as having to pay a $5 million criminal fine for ocean oil dumping done over a period of nearly five years, followed by an attempted cover-up. MK Ship Management Co., a Japanese firm, was made to pay a $150,000 community service charge, as well as a $200,000 criminal penalty for similar offenses over a period of three months.
Polluters pay, stereotypes stifled
Christie announced the post-pollution prosecution environmental donations with an eye towards improving New Jersey’s ecological reputation.
“New Jersey is stereotyped as a place that does not care about the environment and that has more environmental problems than it has to will to deal with them,” he said. “We do not acknowledge or accept that premise. The people of New Jersey are tired, and they want aggressive action by the government to protect their environment. They want results. We need to be innovative and creative in the way we deal with environmental polluters and try to bring some good from the bad acts that they perpetrate against our environment here in New Jersey and in the surrounding region. This is not only good law enforcement. This is good environmental policy.”
This is not the first time that the U.S. Attorney’s Office was involved in issuing such penalties. In 2005, the Evergreen International shipping company was made to pay $2 million in local community service fines after being found guilty of offshore pollution in five states. The funds ultimately went to New Jersey environmental groups. Evergreen International paid a total of $25 million in fines as a result of the 2005 prosecution.
Environmental policy promoters pleased
Other officials present in charge of administering environmental policy were pleased with the wildlife windfall.
“I want to commend Mr. Christie for aggressively pursuing environmental scofflaws in New Jersey,” said Alan Steinberg, a regional administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). “The harbors in and around New Jersey are some of the busiest in the world. Those who take advantage of this relationship will be penalized and punished.”
Amanda Bassow of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation seemed a bit stunned holding two very large live checks in her hand. However, she also seemed confident that she knew what to do with the money.
“We think that using the community service payments to support on-the-ground preservation and restoration is the best way to go. We will work with our conservation partners to identify priorities. Your funds are in good hands.”
Penalty program to continue
According to U.S. Attorney Christie, it is possible that environmental organizations may have even more money placed in their hands in the future as a result of criminal prosecution.
“What we intend on doing is making sure that the fine structure is appropriate given the course of conduct of the potential polluters and the period of time involved,” he said. “The fines will be driven in part by what kind of profit the companies expected to make by skirting the laws, and then making sure that we eliminate that profit margin in its entirety so that we take away the economic motive for dumping these type of materials in our waters.”
Greg Remaud, conservation director of NY/NJ Baykeeper, a local environmental organization that has been particularly active in oyster bed restoration, liked Christie’s tough talk and actions.
“This is not a slap on the wrist,” he said. “This is a significant fine that will force businesses to comply with environmental regulations. Mr. Christie has done a good job here of making the cost of doing business and polluting too expensive and making compliance cost-effective.”
Andrew Willner, the executive director of NY/NJ Baykeeper, thinks that the actions of the U.S. Attorney’s office make an even stronger point.
“It sends a very strong message that polluters should pay for the mess that they create and that money should come back to the environment that they destroy,” he said. “This is a prefect example of how a polluter destroyed a commonly held natural resource, was then prosecuted, and then at least part of the fine came back to restore the resource that they destroyed.”