New Carissa lawsuits end in settlement.Byline: Bob Keefer The Register-Guard A pair of lawsuits between the federal government and the owners of the New Carissa  The M/V New Carissa ended in a settlement Wednesday over cleanup costs and the question of who was to blame for the 1999 shipwreck shipwreck, complete or partial destruction of a vessel as a result of collision, fire, grounding, storm, explosion, or other mishap. In the ancient world sea travel was hazardous, but in modern times the number of shipwrecks due to nonhostile causes has steadily . The 20-page settlement, filed in U.S. District Court in Portland, limits costs to the ship's owners for environmental damage caused when the 639-foot cargo ship ran aground a·ground adv. & adj. 1. Onto or on a shore, reef, or the bottom of a body of water: a ship that ran aground; a ship aground offshore. 2. , but allows the government to seek additional compensation from an industry-financed trust fund. The New Carissa drifted onto the beach near Coos Bay Coos Bay (k  s), city (1990 pop. 15,076), Coos co., SW Oreg., a port of entry on Coos Bay; founded 1854 as Marshfield, inc. 1874, renamed 1944. after it
dragged its anchor in a storm on Feb. 4, 1999. The ship later broke up,
releasing about 70,000 gallons of bunker bunk, bunkerlarge storage bin. bunk forage forage, usually ensilage stored in a large storage bunk and made available to cattle or other livestock along a face of the storage. fuel and 37,000 gallons of diesel fuel. In 2001, the ship's owners, Green Atlas Shipping S.A. of Panama, operator and insurer filed a $96 million suit against the federal government, claiming the grounding occurred, in part, because of faulty maps. In response, the government filed a $7 million countersuit coun·ter·sue tr.v. coun·ter·sued, coun·ter·su·ing, coun·ter·sues Law To bring proceedings against (a plaintiff) in direct opposition to a suit brought against onself. to recover costs of the Coast Guard cleanup after the spill. Under the terms of the settlement, the ship's owners will pay $6.5 million to the government to cover costs of the cleanup. The owners also will pay $4 million to the government for damage to natural resources, and the government will pay $4 million to the owners in a settlement of the liability claim in the grounding. "I am particularly pleased with this settlement," said Elaine Brong, Bureau of Land Management state director. "These initial funds will allow us to begin restoration quickly." Trustees for the affected coastline, including state, federal and tribal agencies, estimated that more than 2,300 seabirds and gulls were killed by pollution from the wreck and 450 to 800 shorebirds were con- taminated with oil. In addition, about 29,000 trips to the coast weren't taken or were "diminished." To pay for that, the settlement allows the government to seek more money from the Oil Spill oil spill: see water pollution. Liability Trust Fund, should the $4 million fall short. Managed by the Coast Guard's National Pollution Funds Center, the fund gets its money from a 5-cent-per-barrel tax on the oil industry and is used for natural resource damage claims. Roman Silberfeld, a lawyer for the ship's owners, didn't return phone calls for comment. |
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