German ship owner charged with covering up pollution in Great Lakes

The U.S. Attorney's Office for Minnesota has charged a German ship owner with illegally discharging polluted water into the Great Lakes and then presenting falsified records of the activity to the U.S. Coast Guard.

The accusations are laid out in a 10-page indictment filed in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis on Wednesday.

The 576-foot, Liberian-flagged ship the Cornelia and its 19 crew members sat at anchor outside the Duluth harbor for more than a month late last year, while the attorney's office investigated the ship for what at the time was described only as a discharge of oily water.

The ship was finally allowed to leave on Dec. 18 so it could exit the Great Lakes before canals were closed for the winter.

The indictment from U.S. Attorney Andrew Luger accuses the ship's German owner, MST Mineralien Schiffahrt, of violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships.

According to the court filing, the Cornelia "experienced significant leakages of oily waste-water from its engines" and illegally discharged the dirty water overboard on at least 10 occasions, including at least once in the Great Lakes.

International and U.S. law stipulates that polluted bilge water from a ship's machinery space can only be legally disposed of if the oil or sludge is first removed by an on-board separator, or if the water is transported to a barge or onshore disposal facility.

The company is also accused of not recording those discharges in the ship's "Oil Record Book," which according to the indictment "gave the false and misleading impression that all of the machinery space bilge water on the Cornelia had been properly handled and disposed."

Shipping company officials could not be reached for comment.