On Wednesday, Hawaii’s attorney general Doug Chin said that, Matson Navigation Co, a big shipping company based in Hawaii has agreed to pay $15 million or more as compensation for a 2013 molasses spill in Honolulu Harbor which killed 26,000 fishes. He believes the $15.4 million dollar settlement is one of the largest payments for an environmental violation in Hawai’i’s history.
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Apart from the financial compensation the settlement also involves efforts of restoration and funding for other environmental programs.
Most of the money, $9.5 million, will be used to remove the remaining molasses equipment and to convert the pipeline for uses other than conveying fluids, it said. Much of the harbour was closed for almost a fortnight as a result.
The company said it will not pass the costs onto customers, taking it instead as a loss.
The state didn’t actually file a lawsuit but worked out a deal to cover damages to our marine ecosystem, as well as for penalties that Matson could have faced if it had gone to court.
Almost $6 million of the settlement package will go toward reimbursing the state for cleanup, investigation, legal expenses, regrowing a coral nursery and as a contribution to an upcoming global conservation conference, the statement said.
“Matson has been a member of the community for more than a hundred years, and the company’s leadership understands the damage the molasses leak caused”, Gov. David Ige said in a statement.
Matson released a statement for its president and CEO Matthew Cox saying the molasses spill was a blow to us all.
Matson executives said previously that they were not prepared for the possibility of a spill, despite transporting molasses from the pipeline for about 30 years.
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Matson shares climbed 51 cents, or 1.3 percent, to close Wednesday at $40.07, and they were up 1 cent in after-hours trading.
