LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. pleaded guilty Monday to falsifying oil discharge records on a ship that was stopped in the Los Angeles port.
The cruise line admitted that its employees presented false pollution prevention records to U.S. Coast Guard officers during routine inspections on the ship Nordic Prince, according to the U.S. attorney's office.The plea relates to three separate incidents between January and October 1994, when the ship was berthed in the Port of Los Angeles.
The crew members presented records that claimed the oils and oil-contaminated waters had been properly treated prior to being thrown overboard. But the equipment designed to separate oil from wastewater was inoperative.
The log and records are required under the Clean Water Act.
"We did these things and they were terrible. There's no excuse. It is a very different company (now) environmentally," said Royal Caribbean spokeswoman Lynn Martenstein from Miami, where the company is headquartered.
The company faces up to $1.5 million in fines. Each of the three counts carries a maximum penalty of a $500,000 fine. Sentencing is set for June 28.
According to Martenstein, the company also pleaded guilty to the same charges in June 1998 in federal courts in Miami and San Juan, Puerto Rico. In those cases, Royal Caribbean was ordered to pay $9 million in fines.
The Nordic Prince was sold in 1995.