The Bay of Plenty Regional Council have begun legal proceedings against Mobil Oil following the oil spill in Tauranga Harbour earlier this year.
A statement released this morning confirmed the authority have "commenced a prosecution" against the oil giants, with the first call set for Tauranga District Court next month.
Bay of Plenty Regional Council have begun legal proceedings against Mobil Oil after an oil spill earlier this year. Photo: File.
The statement reads: "The Bay of Plenty Regional Council has commenced a prosecution against Mobil Oil New Zealand Limited in relation to the oil spilled in Tauranga Harbour on 27 April 2015.
"The first call for the prosecution will be at Tauranga District Court on 26 November 2015.
"The Regional Council will not be making any further comments whilst this is before the courts."
The prosecution stems from an incident in April, when a pipe beneath the Mount Maunganui wharf opened during the refuelling of a cargo ship, pouring an estimated 1.5 tonnes of heavy fuel oil into the harbour.
Pushed along by an incoming tide and a northerly gale, the plume travelled up the harbour, fouling boats at Tauranga Bridge Marina and beaching at Maungatapu.
The clean-up took several months, with Mobil Oil NZ accepting responsibility for the spill and paying clean up costs .
On May 29, SunLive reported that Mobil had paid $421,307.80 in clean-up costs, with a second bill for $270,000 being processed.
The oil company was also paying clean-up costs for boats fouled at the marina.
Cleaning the marina berths went on into June and July as oil was found to have worked its way into the seagrass growing between the floats and pontoon sections.
Each berth was boomed off in both directions, with gaps water blasted.
Around 80 marina boats had to be lifted and cleaned - some of which took several days.
In July, regional council contractors continued to clear heavy fuel oil residue from the beach on Motuopuhi (Rat) island.
Council said at the time that a combination of reasonable weather and day time low tides enabled more oil spill clean-up work on Motuopuhi Island.
4 comments
Legal Costs
Posted on 15-10-2015 12:11 | By The Sage
Mobil should cover all costs, including legal fees.
The Sage
Posted on 15-10-2015 14:02 | By Plonker
Why waste time with legal fees, Mobil have already agreed to pay all costs, the message here is clear, don't co-operate and you get acquitted. Council should encourage others to follow what Mobil have done, they have stood up, acted, paid, worked hard not the lawyers get in on a feast as well. What a complete waste of time and effort here.
boring
Posted on 15-10-2015 19:27 | By Capt_Kaveman
BOOM each of the port or is that too simple
Capt_Kaveman
Posted on 16-10-2015 09:29 | By Plonker
Way to simple, the amount of costs racked up here illustrate two things: how costly anything is that a Council touches and that RBOP have nothing in place to deal with a spill that is effective.
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