Boat owner fined $5000 over accidental diesel spill
Maintenance oversight leaves Lake Macquarie boater with a huge refuelling billA Lake Macquarie boat owner has paid a big price for refuelling after he was slapped with a $5000 fine for accidentally discharging diesel into the waterway.
The fuel leaked from a 14-metre Bayliner earlier this month after an oil slick appeared on the water at the Toronto Royal Motor Yacht Club on May 9.
The slick, the equivalent of about 200 litres of diesel fuel, was traced back to the Bayliner moored at the marina.
The owner told NSW Maritime that a generator on the boat had been removed for maintenance about a week earlier, and while its fuel line had been sealed, the return line had not.
Maritime NSW executive director Mark Hutchings said the owner had believed that fuel could not leak out of the return line.
“When the port side fuel tank was refuelled on the day of the incident, the rising fuel level caused diesel to escape from the tank via the return line and into the bilge,” Hutchings said.
“The float switches then activated the bilge pump, which resulted in an estimated 200 litres of fuel being discharged into the lake.”
Despite being described as an oversight on the boat owner’s part, under the Marine Pollution Act the vessel’s owner is responsible for ensuring fuel is not discharged into the state’s waterways.
Maritime NSW said the boat’s 59-year-old owner was cooperative and turned up at the boat within 10 minutes of being contacted.
If he had contested the fine in court and lost, the fine could have stepped up as high as $500,000.
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