By Dan MacLellan, Canwest News Service

The owner of a barge that tipped and spilled logging equipment into Robson Bight three years ago has been found guilty of pollution charges.

In a decision released Monday, provincial court Judge Brian Saunderson found Ted Leroy Trucking guilty of six pollution charges stemming from the Aug. 20, 2007, incident.

Judge Saunderson said inspections showed the company’s barge was unseaworthy “beyond any doubt” when it tipped and spilled 11 pieces of logging equipment, including almost 20,000 litres of oil and fuel, into the Robson Bight Ecological Reserve in Johnstone Strait, north of Campbell River.

Robson Bight is famous for its pebble beaches, where orcas come to rub themselves.

At the trial last October, the court heard that the barge had been loaded by Ted Leroy Trucking at Beaver Cove near Port McNeill and was to be towed to Bute Inlet.

But the barge listed while passing through the Robson Bight Ecological Reserve.

A tanker truck carrying 10,000 litres of diesel oil slid over the side along with a tractor, an excavator, an ambulance, a crew bus, a grapple yarder, a log loader, a service truck, a snorkel log loader, an articulated truck, a pickup truck and a cargo container.

The fuel tanks of the vehicles were full, bringing the petroleum product total to almost 20,000 litres.

About 200 litres of oil formed slicks on the surface, stretching from 14 kilometres northwest to Hanson Island.

Ronald Edward (Ted) Leroy testified that his company purchased the barge in 2004 for $40,000 and that nobody had told him there was anything wrong with it.

He said he’d never had a marine survey done to ensure the barge was seaworthy.

After the accident, a Transport Canada inspector found holes and cracks in the hull and “damage to internal bulkheads compromising water-tight integrity between compartments.”

Pumps had to be used to keep the barge afloat during the inspection.

Another Transport Canada marine safety inspector said “the scow was in poor condition, with deficiencies directly affecting its watertight integrity an seaworthiness.”

He said the barge wasn’t seaworthy before or after being loaded in Beaver Cove.

An independent marine surveyor found the barge had suffered from long- standing deterioration and was not seaworthy at the time of the accident.

“All the evidence leads to the inescapable conclusions that none of the 10 compartments were watertight,” Saunderson concluded in his ruling.

The judge wrote “that failure to maintain and secure the centreline tunnel bulkhead door permitted water to flow into the centreline tunnel, causing the bow to sit lower in the water; and that in turn permitted more water to enter through larger holes which had initially been above the water line.

“Without question, the sole cause of the accident was the unseaworthiness of the barge. There was nothing to suggest that Capt. [Carl] Strom’s seamanship, or some other intervening factor, contributed to its cause.”

Saunderson said maritime law places responsibility for seaworthiness with the owner of the barge.

He said Leroy’s testimony that he knew nothing about the condition of the barge “strains credulity.”

“Casting him in the most favourable light, he was negligent,” Saunderson said. “More likely, he was wilfully blind. At worst, he was lying about the state of his knowledge.

“Regardless of which conclusion one accepts, no defence to the charges was offered on behalf of the company. There is no evidence that Mr. Leroy, or anyone on behalf of his company, considered the matter of the seaworthiness of the barge for the voyage, or took any steps in that regard.”

The charges included:

n Unlawfully discharging oil into Johnstone Strait in violation of the Canada Shipping Act.

n Unlawfully discharging oil into waters frequented by fish in violation of the Fisheries Act.

n Unlawfully discharging oil into waters frequented by migratory birds in violation of the Migratory Birds Convention Act.

Similar charges against the tugboat company Gowlland Towing and Strom were dismissed.

A Chemainus-based logging contractor, Ted Leroy Trucking filed for bankruptcy protection four months after the spill.

A high-tech salvage operation funded by the provincial and federal governments last May recovered the tanker truck and most of the diesel oil from the bottom of Johnston Strait.

Click here to view this story at the Vancouver Sun online.