When a ship strike into the Key Bridge wreaked havoc on Baltimore, it took a massive federal response to clean up the mess, reopen the port, and mitigate the damage.
Now, the owners of the M/V Dali are being held accountable. On Thursday, the U.S. Justice Department announced a settlement with Grace Ocean Private Limited and Synergy Marine Private Limited, the Singaporean corporations that owned and operated the Dali. The corporations have agreed to pay $101,980,000 to to resolve the federal government’s civil claim for the extensive federal costs of restoring access to the Port of Baltimore.
In their claim, the United States put the blame for the disaster squarely on the ship’s owners. Photo evidence in the civil claim showed how the Dali‘s crew allegedly cut corners with unsafe fixes.
“This was an entirely avoidable catastrophe, resulting from a series of eminently foreseeable errors made by the owner and operator of the Dali,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian M. Boynton, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division.
The federal government’s civil claim came in response to the Dali owners asking that their liability be limited to $44 million, the value of the ship. But the federal lawsuit argued that the cost of cleaning up from the catastrophic allision was much higher.
The United States led the response efforts of dozens of federal, state, and local agencies to remove about 50,000 tons of steel, concrete, and asphalt from the channel and from the container ship itself. While removal operations were underway, the United States set up temporary channels to start relieving the bottleneck at the port. It took 2.5 months to clear the Fort McHenry Channel.
For their herculean effort, the feds sought civil damages for $103,078,056 under the Rivers and Harbors Act, Oil Pollution Act, and general maritime law.
Of that $103 million, the government receives $101.98 million. The money will go to the U.S. Treasury and to the budgets of several federal agencies that helped in the Key Bridge response or were directly affected by its collapse.
“Nearly seven months after one of the worst transportation disasters in recent memory, which claimed six lives and caused untold damage, we have reached an important milestone with today’s settlement,” said Principal Deputy Associate Attorney General Benjamin C. Mizer. “This resolution ensures that the costs of the federal government’s cleanup efforts in the Fort McHenry Channel are borne by Grace Ocean and Synergy and not the American taxpayer.”
In addition to the $101.98 million settlement, Grace Ocean recently paid $97,294 to the Coast Guard National Pollution Fund Center for the cost of stopping the threat of oil pollution after the disaster.
Meanwhile, no settlement has been announced in a second lawsuit against Dali‘s owners—this one brought by the state of Maryland. The state is responsible for the rebuilding of the Key Bridge and can seek damages to pay for it. The estimated cost of a new Key Bridge is at least $1.7 billion.
The state’s claim also says the economy has taken a hit because of tax revenue from port cargo activities. The state will lose four years’ worth of bridge toll revenue while a replacement is being built. The state’s civil claim did not name a dollar amount for the costs Maryland will incur.
