The Sierra Club first sued Texaco in 1993 for discharging thousands of gallons of oil and other toxic pollutants into the North Platte River from its inactive refinery at Evansville, Wyoming. The refinery operated from 1923 to 1982. Texaco agreed in 1995 to a court order that would have prohibited further pollution of the river. In 1999, after Texaco's efforts failed, an amended court order required Texaco to construct an impermeable barrier wall between the refinery site and the river.

The river forms the northern border of the refinery site and is highly valued as a regional water supply, fishery and recreational resource. Texaco's program to decommission and stabilize the 200-acre refinery site began in mid-1996 and was completed in 2000. This project involved removal of all refinery structures, including more than 200 miles of subsurface refinery piping, thousands of tons of concrete, and thousands of cubic yards of petroleum contaminated soils. The second phase was installation of a state-of-the-art Waterloo Barrier - a patented form of steel sheet piling with sealed joints - to provide reliable, long-term protection of surface water quality in the North Platte River.

Because the design barrier alignment encroached into the main channel of the river, design and construction had to preserve the flood conveyance capacity of the river and mitigation of fringe wetlands that would be disturbed. A longer version of this article first appeared on the Environmental News Service at http://ens-news.com/.

Scottish EPA Fines Local Government for Water Pollution
Dumfries and Galloway Council pled guilty to two charges of causing leachate to enter a local water tributary and were fined £5000 at Dumfries Sheriff Court on 23 August 2002. The leachate entered an unnamed tributary of the Lochar Water from their Locharmoss Waste Disposal Site in December 2000. Leachate is the polluted liquid that results when water passes through waste and picks up breakdown products and soluble elements. The prosecution was the result of a report submitted to the Procurator Fiscal by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) after a thorough investigation.

A SEPA officer was undertaking an inspection of the edges of Locharmoss Waste Disposal Site in December 2000 when he saw what appeared to be discharges of leachate entering a nearby drainage ditch at the southeast corner of the site. Further investigations revealed that leachate was both overflowing and running through the slumped wall of a recently reinforced section of the leachate ditch. Despite attempts by the Council to shore up the walls of the leachate ditch leachate was still found to be entering the drainage ditch a week later. As the drainage ditch passes through grazing land on its way to the Lochar Water, its pollution by landfill leachate was regarded a serious matter and subsequently reported to the Procurator Fiscal.

Colin Clark, Senior Environment Protection Officer for SEPA, said after the case: "Although it is always regrettable when matters end in Court, the fact that the Council received a substantial fine demonstrates that breaches of environmental legislation, whether caused by a public body or a private citizen, will not be tolerated by SEPA or the Courts." For more information, visit http://www.sepa.org.uk/news/releases/2002/pr125.html.

Argentine Court Orders Shell to Cleanup Coastline
An Argentine federal judge has ordered Royal Dutch/Shell to perform a multi-million-dollar coastline cleanup three years after one if its tankers collided with another vessel on the Rio de la Plata near Buenos Aries (Municipality of Magdalena Against Shell CAPSA and Other About Handling of Dangerous Waste, No. 31813).

The January 1999 collision between Shell's Estrella Pampeana and a cargo vessel produced a 5,300 cubic meter oil spill. While Shell did retrieve some of the oil, Judge Julio Cesar Miralles ruled that the cleanup was inadequate and ordered the company to resume its efforts and restore the environment along the 20-mile long coastline.

Shell announced it would appeal the ruling. Shell has argued that the law relied upon by the court, National Law No. 24051, was unconstitutional. In addition, they said that, as of April 2001, all animal and plant life in the area had returned to normal levels.

In his ruling, the Judge cited experts who said Shell used bulldozers to clean the coastline, badly damaging the soil and depriving it of its natural vegetation, noting that "[t]he removal of vegetation caused the destruction of nesting, hibernation, shelter, feeding and reproduction sites" for local wildlife. The ruling added that the destruction of reed wetlands hurt the landscape and deprived local inhabitants of a critical source of subsistence income.

Cleanup cost estimates range from $10 to $35 million. Shell must pay the equivalent of $30,000 per day it delays implementing the cleanup order. Two other cases are still pending against Shell. One seeks nearly $20 million (USD) in compensation for collateral damage caused to industry, trade, and tourism. The second is a class action by Magdalena dwellers that said their livelihood and lifestyles were adversely affected by the spill. A longer version of this article first appeared in the International Environment Reporter (David Haskel, Argentine Judge Orders Shell to Perform Multi-Million-Dollar Coastline Cleanup, INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENT REPORTER, Vol. 25, p. 1195 (Bureau of National Affairs, 2002).

Columbia Shut Down Coal Loading Company
The Colombian Ministry of Environment announced November 7th that it had suspended the operations of a private sector company responsible for loading coal on ocean faring vessels in the Caribbean port of Santa Marta, citing its damage to the marine environment. Under Resolution No. 1005, the Ministry found that la Sociedad Operadora de Carbon de Santa Maria (Carbosan Ltda.) had caused grave damage to the marine environment.

The government's technical experts investigated the company's activities after complaints were received from local residents about coal dust on land in the waters. The ministry found that:

Santa Marta Bay is being polluted by coal dust from dock facilities and from barges loading coal onto ships;
The emission of coal particles and coal oil residues are harming local beaches and tourist activities;
Coal stored dockside lacked wind protectors and effluents from coal/water mixtures have been seeping into the ground;
Oily residues of coal are contaminating soils in and around the storage area;
The company is not spraying down coal stockpiles often enough to hold down emissions of coal dust and other pollutants; and
Protective nets intended to minimize the spread of dust are in need of repair.

The Ministry noted that the industry, and Carbosan Ltda. specifically, were repeatedly warned of the impending regulatory action and provided with an environmental guide that provided step-by-step procedures for complying with environmental legislation applicable to their sector. The Colombian President, Alvaro Uribe, went so far as to state that the port companies must "stop contaminating and improve [their] operations" or "you will be closed down." Despite warnings, guidance, and other efforts to achieve voluntary compliance, the company failed to adequately address the coal dust emissions. The suspension takes immediate effect and cannot be appealed. A longer version of this article first appeared in the International Environment Reporter (Jimmy Weiskopf, Colombia Suspends Operations of Firm Loading Coal on Ships. Cites Adverse Impacts, INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENT REPORTER, Vol. 25, p. 1130 (Bureau of National Affairs, 2002).

Workshop Addresses Marine Enforcement in the Indian Ocean
The US State Department, through their embassy in Ethiopia, organized a Workshop on Marine Enforcement in the Indian Ocean that was held in Port Louis, Mauritius, from April 8 to 12, 2002.

Indian Ocean coastal States face significant threats to marine resources within their Exclusive Economic Zones, particularly through the activities of illegal, unregulated, and unreported fishing vessels. A lack of capacity and resources hampers the ability of the majority of affected States in carrying out effective controls at sea and port States, and the over-harvesting of marine resources has clear conservation and food security implications for the region.

Over 40 delegates from Indian Ocean coastal States, inter-governmental organizations, regional fisheries management organizations, and non-governmental organizations, including TRAFFIC East/Southern Africa, attended the workshop. In addition, representatives from the United States National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, the US Coast Guard, and the US National Marine Fisheries Service formed a core group of presenters. The focus of the workshop lay in facilitating collaboration between Indian Ocean Coastal States on monitoring, surveillance and compliance related to marine fisheries, as well as building capacity on onshore enforcement regimes and providing information on the use of market-state measures in addressing illegal, unregulated, and unreported fishing.

Presentations by the various country delegates provided significant insight into the capacity of these countries to effectively regulate marine fisheries within their Exclusive Economic Zones, with a clear trend towards a lack of capacity and resources. Various enforcement techniques were discussed, as were the differences in sanction provisions related to the infringement of fisheries regulations.

Representatives from National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration and National Marine Fisheries Service emphasized the role that market States can play in tackling illegal, unregulated, and unreported fishing through the use of trade-related measures and specific tools such as the US Lacy Act. Such approaches are particularly relevant to Indian Ocean coastal States that for the most part lack the necessary at-sea enforcement capacity to address illegal, unregulated, and unreported fishing at the harvest stage. While the important role of consumer states in addressing illegal, unregulated, and unreported fishing was recognized, it was clear that a comprehensive approach to illegal, unregulated, and unreported fishing is required and coastal States must accordingly enhance their monitoring, surveillance and compliance capacity towards boosting flag and port-state controls. In light of the budgetary and capacity constraints facing the majority of countries present, it was recognized that the most significant advances will be achieved through information sharing, greater collaboration on enforcement activities, and the alignment of national legislation. For more information, visit http://www.fao.org/fi/projects/fishcode/Confpaper/MCSNet_Mauritius_a1.pdf.