B.P. fined $500 for oil spill

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34130, 17 April 1976, Page 16

B.P. fined $500 for oil spill

The oil company, BP New Zealand, Ltd, was fined S5OO by Mr P. L. Molineaux, S.M., in the Christchurch Magistrate's Court on Thursday on a charge of being the occupier of land from which oil escaped into Lyttelton Harbour last October.

The company was further ordered to pay $3142.20 to the Lyttelton Harbour Board for the cost of cleaning up the spillage. The company, which entered a plea of not guilty, was liable to a fine of $50,000.

Evidence earlier given during the three-day hearing established that between 10 and 20 gallons of petrol were spilt into the harbour on October 9, from a 1500-gallon slops tank. Mr P. G. S. Penlington, for the defendant company, submitted that there had been strong evidence that other oil companies had contributed to the “negligence.” One oil company, he said, was responsible for omitting to put the cap on a suction pipe from which oil flowed. Another company was to have emptied the slops tank He submitted that the slops tank was a minor part of the whole installation: ‘ Only 10 to 15 gallons of oil actually escaped into the harbour, but because of its viscosity a little bit goes a long way,” he said.

Mr Penlington added that the evidence never indicated a highly dangerous situation and that the company acted with promptitude, doing all it possibly could after the spill.

New safety measures have and are being installed, said counsel. Mr T. M. Abbot, for the Lyt-

telton Harbour Board, said that there was danger in the situation and that the amount spilt was not insignificant. The Magistrate said that the defendant company should not have assumed that the slops tank was empty: “If a check had been made, tire situation would never have arisen,” he said.