Matson also agreed to cease its molasses operation in Hawaii and pay for removal of its molasses tanks and any remaining molasses.
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Now that there’s a settlement with Hawaii, the company doesn’t face any other pending claims, said Matson spokesman Jeff Hull.
Matson will pay Hawaii $5.9 million towards re-growing a coral nursery damaged due to the spill and reimbursing the state for cleanup efforts.
“With this agreement, Matson to our understanding, has agreed to end its operations for molasses in the state of Hawaii, ‘ said Chin”.
“This really was a widespread decimation”, said Hawai’i Attorney General Doug Chin. “The state will make sure that Matson spares no costs and cuts no corners”.
About 1,400 tons of brown, sticky liquid leaked into the harbor in September, 2013, from a faulty molasses-loading pipeline used to load it onto ships operated by Matson Navigation Company, an worldwide ocean transport company.
The spill, in an industrial area about 5 miles west of Waikiki’s hotels and beaches, shut down much of Honolulu Harbor for almost two weeks.
The 223,000-gallon spill, which is roughly equivalent to one-third of an Olympic-sized swimming pool, suffocated thousands of fish, damaged the ecosystem and closed parts of the harbor for days.
“The results show that corals, fish and benthic organisms in Honolulu Harbor prior to the incident were living in a highly stressed commercial environment with high sedimentation, low water quality and other conditions unfavorable to the growth of long-term success of marine life”, the Matson report said.
The settlement was reached before the state filed a lawsuit, which could have taken eight to 12 years to resolve, Chin said.
A “damage assessment showed that some of the coral killed in the molasses spill can take hundreds of years to grow and are irreplaceable”, Kaluhiwa said.
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“Environmental stewardship is a core value in our company, so this event was a blow to all of us at Matson”, said Matson CEO Matt Cox.
