Court orders made

Without conviction, the defendant was released on an undertaking to be of Good Behaviour for a period of two years.
Ordered pursuant to s.67AC of the Act:

1. To carry out a specified environmental audit of its activities as detailed below.
2. Within 3 months of this Order, the defendant must submit to the Environment Protection Authority (“the EPA”) for approval a revised Environment Improvement Plan (“EIP”) that covers the maintenance and operation of all vessels operated by the Defendant.
3. The EIP must include the following for all vessels:
(a) A mechanical preventative maintenance program;
(b) A program to prevent discharges of oil into the bilge water;
   (c) A revised bilge maintenance procedure; and
   (d) A procedure for the eduction of bilge wastewater.
4. The Defendant must comply with all programs and procedures set out in the EIP approved by the EPA pursuant to Req. 2 above.
5. Within 2 months of this Order, the Defendant must engage an independent qualified marine engineer to conduct a mechanical inspection of all vessels operated by the Defendant and produce a written report, which identifies the sources of oil contamination in the bilge of each vessel and sets out recommendations for the repair of those sources.
6. The independent qualified marine engineer referred to in Req. 5, 8 and 9 must hold a relevant Certificate of Competency recognised by the Australian Marine Safety Authority and/or Marine Safety Victoria and have relevant experience with small to medium diesel engines.
7. The report prepared by the independent qualified marine engineer pursuant to Req. 5 must be submitted to the EPA for approval within 2 weeks of the recommendations being made.  The EPA must advise the Defendant of it’s approval or disapproval within 2 weeks of the report being received.
8. Maintenance works and repairs identified by the independent qualified marine engineer and contained in the recommendations of the report prepared under Req. 4 and approved by EPA must be undertaken by a suitably qualified marine engineer on all vessels operated by the Defendant by 31 December 2007.
9. Written verification by an independent qualified marine engineer of the repairs undertaken on each vessel pursuant to Req. 8 must be submitted to the EPA within 2 weeks of the repairs being completed.
10.Until written verification pursuant to Req. 9 is submitted to the EPA in the case of a vessel operated by the Defendant, bilge water from that vessel must not be discharged into Victorian waters except in the case of appropriate response to an emergency.  Emergency is defined here as “danger to the safety of the vessel or personnel”.
11.In the event of an emergency discharge to Victorian waters by the Defendant, the Defendant must verbally report the discharge immediately to the EPA, and provide EPA with a written report within 24 hours of the discharge detailing the circumstances of the discharge.
12. Until written verification pursuant to Req. 9 is submitted to the EPA, any bilge water requiring removal from any vessel operated by the Defendant must be educted to an EPA permitted road tanker and transported for appropriate waste treatment at an EPA licensed site.
13. Records of all bilge waste removed pursuant to Req.12 must be retained by the Defendant and made available to an EPA authorized officer upon request for a period of 2 years from the date of this order.

Costs: $10,000