Settlements and Verdicts

Oil Spill

Eureka, CA: (May-09-08) State and federal governments filed suit against Hong Kong companies Kure Shipping S.A. and Patt Manfield Co., over a November 1997 Kure oil spill in Humboldt Bay that resulted in the decimation of birds and wildlife. The suit stated that over 4,000 birds died when the vessel Kure slammed into a concrete mooring structure at the old Louisiana Pacific Corp. dock on the Samoa Peninsula.

The Nov. 5, 1997 incident also resulted in about 4,500 gallons of oil being spilled, which spread by tides and currents out to sea to Trinidad. Federal officials stated that another spill occurred two years later, when the vessel Stuyvesant spilled 2,100 gallons when a dredging boom ruptured its hull. Owing to the contamination, common murres, threatened marbled murrelets, loons, grebes and waterfowl were all coated by oil, and 6,200 acres of wetlands, beaches and mudflats were also damaged.

In a recent announcement, nearly a decade after the Kure spill, the US Fish and Wildlife Service and the California Department of Fish and Game stated that a settlement has been reached, and that a restoration efforts will be initialized. As part of the settlement agreement, Kure Shipping and Patt Manfield bought the permanent easements that cost the companies about $2.4 million. Additionally, they agreed to a $2.5 million payout that will go to the state and federal agencies to enlarge or extend projects named as part of the restoration plan for the Stuyvesant spill. [TIMES-STANDARD: OIL SPILL SETTLEMENT FILED]

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