Kinder Morgan settles ocean dumping charge

Kinder Morgan Bulk Terminals Inc. has reached an agreement to settle a felony charge of ocean dumping.

On Friday, Oregon U.S. Attorney Karin Immergut filed felony charges against the company, which is a Louisiana-based subsidiary of Houston-based Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP (NYSE: KMP). The criminal charges alleged that in August 2003 a Kinder Morgan employee at the company's Port of Portland terminal paid a ship captain to illegally dump potash in the Pacific Ocean.

Kinder Morgan has agreed to enter a plea to a criminal violation of the Ocean Dumping Act. The company will pay a $175,000 fine and make a $65,000 donation to the Oregon Governor's Fund for the Environment.

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"Kinder Morgan Bulk Terminals has acted appropriately in this case by cooperating and agreeing in (principle) to plead guilty," Immergut said in a statement. "We believe this will send a strong message to other corporations that the government will seek fair sentences in these cases."

Kinder Morgan "did not benefit financially from the incident and no Kinder Morgan personnel outside of the terminal either approved or had any knowledge of the former employee's arrangements," the company said in its statement.

Potash is used as a salt substitute and a fertilizer. The potash in question had become wet and no longer had commercial value.

No harm was done to the environment by the dumping, according to the statements of Kinder Morgan and the U.S. attorney.

Kinder Morgan Energy Partners is an energy and pipeline company with a market cap of $14.9 billion.