It's a sad irony that a company called Marine Environmental Services , Inc. (MES), with all of its environmentally nurturing connotations, pleaded guilty alongside its owner, Jerry Askew, on Monday to knowingly releasing 500,000 gallons of polluted water into the Elizabeth River.
Askew's company, Marine Environmental Services, Inc., had been cleaning a decommissioned tanker in 2005 which contained 2.1 million gallons of water polluted by bacteria, grease, and oil when the water was finally released.
For this inexcusable crime, MES faces what amounts to a slap on the wrist. MES could be given a maximum penalty of 5 years of probation and $500,000 fine. Its owner, Jerry Askew, is looking at a maximum penalty of 1 year in prison and a fine of $100,000.
With such leniant penalties, its little wonder that MES decided to dump half a million gallons of polluted water into the Elizabeth River.
To make the sentencing even lighter, MES agreed to invest $50,00 in community service projects that "benefit" the Elizabeth River watershed, as if $50,000 were enough to come anywhere near salvaging the damage that has been done by the polluted water.
Putting aside the fact that the owner and the company are being treated as two separate legal entities, it should go without saying that the penalty should fit the crime. But as in so many environmental criminal cases, the penalty rarely does.
At least one entire generation will be affected by the mass dump of polluted water into the Elizabeth. Is the severe degradation of a body of water like the Elizabeth River worth a mere $50,000? |
