New Jersey Beach, Wildlife Refuges Share Settlement from Company in Panama

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A beach and two wildlife refuges in New Jersey will be the beneficiaries of $2 million that was part of a settlement of pollution charges, the top federal prosecutor in New Jersey announced Monday.

SANDY HOOK, N.J. — A beach and two wildlife refuges in New Jersey will be the beneficiaries of $2 million that was part of a settlement of pollution charges, the top federal prosecutor in New Jersey announced Monday.


The money is from $25 million paid by Evergreen International, a Panamanian company, after pleading guilty last month to more than two dozen counts of illegal dumping around the United States. The amount is one of the largest fines ever imposed on a company that deliberately polluted the ocean.


"It doesn't forgive or repair what Evergreen did in our nation's ports, but paying such a historically large fine is a fitting and appropriate way for a polluter to make good for the environmental damage it inflicted," U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Christie said.


The money will also go toward buying over 300 acres of wetlands and forests for the Cape May refuge, and about 120 acres of upland dune and shrub habitat to be added to the Forsythe refuge, officials said.


New Jersey was among five jurisdictions affected by the pollution, along with Los Angeles, Seattle, Portland and Charleston, South Carolina.


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Evergreen, one of the world's largest shipping lines, concealed the discharge of waste oil, obstructed Coast Guard inspections and altered records over a three-year period ending in 2001, federal officials said. The company entered its plea in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles to 24 felony counts and one misdemeanor.


Source: Associated Press