Royal Caribbean Cruises Indicted For Dumping

WASHINGTON (Reuter) - A federal grand jury indicted Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. on charges it conspired to dump waste oil in U.S. waters and made false statements to the Coast Guard, according to the Justice Department.

The 10-count indictment from a grand jury in San Juan, Puerto Rico, also charged the Miami-based cruise line and two high-level employees with obstruction of justice, accusing it of tampering with witnesses and destroying evidence that a cruise ship was bypassing pollution control procedures, the department said Thursday.

The indictment, stemming from a Coast Guard surveillance operation in 1994, charged that engineers on the cruise ship Sovereign of the Seas routinely dumped oily bilge waste overboard instead of processing the waste and discharging waste oil at a port facility.

"Royal Caribbean is concerned about the environment and deplores the reported violations of its policies as well as international environmental laws," the company said in a statement.

The company said the two employees named in the indictment were placed on administrative leave, and said it has increased monitoring and enforcement of environmental rules since it learned of the allegations more than two years ago.

The indictment alleged that cruise line employees falsified oil record books on various ships to conceal the discharge practices from the Coast Guard.

Engineers on at least five of the cruise line's ships -- Sovereign of the Seas, Monarch of the Seas, Song of America, Nordic Prince and Nordic Empress -- maintained false documents to conceal overboard discharges of oil bilge waste from the Coast Guard, the indictment said.

Also charged in the indictment were Royal Caribbean Chief Engineer Henry Ericksen and First Engineer Svenn Rikard Roeymo.

"This indictment is a shot across the bow of ships that would intentionally foul our coastal waters and lie about it to federal investigators," Lois Schiffer, assistant attorney general in charge of the Justice Department's Environmental and Natural Resources Division, said in a statement.

Royal Caribbean said that after hearing two years ago about the possible discharge of OILY bilge water, it tightened environmental monitoring procedures, named a senior vice president to review all environmental procedures, upgraded pollution control equipment and created a position of environmental enforcement officer aboard each of its ships.

"The company acknowledges that no environmental program, including ones which exceed requirements, can excuse or counterbalance a single violation," the company said

Royal Caribbean's stock dropped 75 cents to $23.875 on the New York Stock Exchange.