France gets tough on maritime polluters

Today Online 18 Jan 08;

PARIS — A court has convicted the French oil giant Total SA of maritime pollution for hauling fuel in a dubious and rusty tanker which split in two in a 1999 storm, causing France's worst oil spill. The ruling on Wednesday marked the first time a French court awarded damages for harm to the ecology.

The court ordered Total and three other defendants to pay 192 million euros ($404 million) in compensation to 101 civil parties, mainly associations involved in the clean-up or ecology groups.

Far less punishing for Total than the damages was the 375,000-euro fine accompanying the guilty verdict for maritime pollution — the maximum fine for that offence. The court faulted the company for "carelessness" in leasing the 23-year-old Maltese-registered vessel which had had eight names and numerous owners.

Ecology Minister Jean-Louis Borloo said the verdict "marks a very important step" by recognising "the notion of an ecological harm resulting from an attack on the environment".

The court also convicted Italian company Registro Italiano Navale, or Rina, which had inspected the vessel, as well as the ship's Italian owner, Giuseppe Savarese, and Antonio Pollara, head of Italian company Panship, which was operating the vessel.

The verdict was less harsh than it might have been. Total was acquitted of complicity in endangering people in the spill that soiled some 400km of Atlantic coastal beaches in the region known as Brittany. Total suggested it was studying whether to appeal the case. It has 10 days to do so. — AP