A lawsuit filed by Glynn County is seeking compensation for economic losses and environmental damage caused by the capsizing of the Golden Ray container ship and the ordeal of removing the vessel from waters off the Georgia coast.
County officials claim that negligence in loading the ship made the vessel top-heavy, causing it to overturn in St. Simon’s Sound with 4,161 vehicles onboard. Last year, a marine accident report produced by the National Transportation Safety Board concluded that miscalculations made by the ship’s chief officer were the main cause of the accident.
The last piece of the hulking ship was carried away on a barge last October, more than two years after it ran aground in the early hours of September 8, 2019.
Credit: St. Simons Sound Incident response
Credit: St. Simons Sound Incident response
But the process of cutting the ship into manageable pieces and carrying it away — along with thousands of cars — released huge amounts of oil into Georgia’s coastal waters, fouling some of the area’s beaches and delicate marshes. The lawsuit alleges the salvage company tasked with removing the Golden Ray failed to keep oil and other hazardous substances from escaping into the environment.
The county says the disaster harmed tourism, fishermen, property owners, the area’s fragile ecosystems and more, which also led Glynn County to lose tax revenue. They want five companies connected to the Golden Ray to pay for those damages, including the cost of repairing impacted properties, plus attorneys fees and other costs.
The suit was filed in U.S. District Court in Brunswick on Friday against GL NV24 Shipping Inc., the Golden Ray’s owner; Hyundai Glovis Co., the ship’s manager; the G-Marine Service Co., Ltd., the operator and technical manager of the ship; Norton Lilly International, the vessel’s agent at the port of Brunswick; and T&T Salvage LLC, the company which led efforts to remove the wreckage.
Attempts by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution to contact representatives of the companies were unsuccessful.
The new legal action comes after Georgia’s Environmental Protection Division levied a $3 million fine against Hyundai Glovis earlier this year for discharging pollutants into the state’s waters after the ship capsized. The fine was the largest ever imposed by EPD.
Credit: St. Simons Sound Incident response
Credit: St. Simons Sound Incident response
Coastal conservationists welcomed the lawsuit.
“Industry has been polluting our waterways for generations,” said Susan Inman, a coastal advocate with the conservation group One Hundred Miles. “Finally, we have local elected leaders willing to stand up and hold the polluters accountable for actions that caused injury to the natural resources that make Georgia’s coast beautiful and unique.”
Fletcher Sams, the executive director of the Altamaha Riverkeeper, also praised the county’s attempt to recoup some of the costs.
However, he said that a full survey by the federal government — called a Natural Resources Damage Assessment — has not been conducted to determine how much oil and hazardous chemicals remain in the environment. During trips out on the water, Sams said he still often sees evidence of fuel contamination. But without a federal assessment, he fears it could be difficult to calculate how much it will ultimately cost to clean up and repair affected areas.
“Without knowing how bad the damage is, no one knows what restoration needs to take place,” he said.
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