PORT OF LOS ANGELES : Firm Donates $50,000 as Part of Oil Spill Penalty

As part of its penalty for spilling 630 gallons of oil into Los Angeles Harbor more than a year ago, Shinko Maritime Co. Ltd., a Japanese shipping conglomerate, recently contributed $50,000 to the local environmental group Heal the Bay.

Los Angeles Deputy City Atty. Brooke White said the company, based in Kobe, was ordered to make the contribution as part of $100,000 in penalties assessed against it by a judge late last year.

In addition to the donation, Los Angeles Municipal Judge Barry Taylor ordered the company to pay $43,217.59 in fines and $6,782.41 in investigative costs to the state Department of Fish and Game.

Attorneys for Shinko Maritime had entered a no-contest plea on behalf of the company to charges of violating a state law that makes it a crime to spill oil into marine waters.

The spill occurred on Aug. 3, 1993, as the freighter Tropical Dawn, which had been chartered by Shinko Maritime to Dole Fruit, was refueling at Berth 136 at the harbor. The cause of the spill was an equipment failure in a valve.