Probe: ConocoPhillips may not have reported oil spill

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http://www.tri-cityherald.com/tch/local/state/story/6613482p-6498446c.html

A federal grand jury in Alaska has launched an investigation into problems aboard ConocoPhillips oil tankers.

The grand jury is looking into the apparent cover-up of an oil spill in the Pacific Ocean. It has subpoenaed the testimony and records of an engine room officer, James Legg, who said he witnessed the spill and cover-up on the Polar Discovery, a ConocoPhillips tanker, according to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Failure to report an oil spill to the Coast Guard immediately is a federal crime.

The investigation follows a series of stories in the newspaper that described the spill and also detailed an unreported explosion, alcohol use and other problems on ConocoPhillips tankers, which routinely visit Washington waters.

The Alaska grand jury is the second federal panel investigating ConocoPhillips tanker operations. A grand jury in Seattle is looking into a mystery oil spill that occurred Oct. 13 in Puget Sound's Dalco Passage. The oil from that spill was matched by U.S. Coast Guard lab tests to crude oil carried that day aboard another ConocoPhillips tanker, Polar Texas, which sailed through the area of the spill shortly before it was discovered. The company has denied any role in that spill.