Carnival will pay $ 20m over pollution from their cruise ships
MIAMI (AP) – Carnival Corp. reached an agreement Monday with federal prosecutors where the world's largest cruise ship agreed to pay a $ 20 million penalty because their ships continued to pollute the oceans despite a previous conviction to prevent similar behavior
Senior US District Judge Patricia Seitz approved the agreement after Carnival CEO Arnold Donald got up in the open court and admitted the company's responsibility for sampling offenses due to the past environment.
"The company is guilty of guilty," Arnold said. Six times in a packed courtroom that includes other senior carnival leaders, including the company's manager and Miami Heat owner Micky Arison.
"We recognize the shortcomings. I am here today to formulate a plan to fix them," Arnold said.
"The proof will be in pudding, right?" Answered the judge. "If you didn't all have the environment, you wouldn't have anything to sell."
The carnival admitted that breach conditions were deducted from a criminal conviction from 201[ads1]6 to release oil waste from their Princess Cruise Lines ships and cover it up. Carnival paid a $ 40 million fine and was put on five years of probation in that case, which hit all nine of its cruise brands boasting over 100 ships.
Now, Carnival has recognized that in the years since the ships have committed environmental crimes as dumping "gray water" in banned places, such as the Alaskan Glacier Bay National Park, and deliberately allowing plastics to be merged with food waste in the Bahamas, posing a serious threat to sea life.
The company also admitted falsification of compliance documents and other administrative breaches such as having cleanup teams visit their ships just before scheduled inspections.
Seitz at a previous hearing threatened to carry carnival from docking in US ports because of the breaches and said she could hold leaders individually responsible for probation violations.
"The concern I have is that senior management does not have any skin in the game," said Seitz, adding that future violations may be faced with imprisonment and criminal penalties for individuals. "My goal is to get the defendant to change his behavior."
During the settlement, Carnival promised that there would be further audits to check offenses, reorganization of company compliance and training programs, a better system for reporting environmental violations to state and federal agencies, and improved waste management practices.
The agreement would also set the schedule for September 13 and October 9 to create an improved compliance plan and make other changes, with fines of $ 1 million per day if these deadlines are not met. If a second round of deadlines is not met, fines may go up to $ 10 million a day.
Other proposed changes include a reduction of Carnival by the use of disposable products throughout the fleet and the creation of a "tiger team" intended to make improvements to the ship's food and beverage systems and how waste is handled at sea.
Seitz retires later this year and turns over to the US District Judge Ursula Ungaro, who jointly led Monday's hearing.
Three people who claimed that they were victims of carnival environmental offenses participated in the hearing. Their lawyer, Knoll Lowney, expressed skepticism that the carnival will keep its word this time around.
"Carnival has repeatedly shown its contempt of environmental law and the rule of law," he said. "Here we are again."
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