Maryland bills Evergreen over Ever Forward grounding

Ever Forward grounded near Baltimore, Maryland in early March 2022 and lodged in more than 6 m of mud nearly a year after sister ship Ever Given disrupted global trade by grounding in and blocking traffic through the Suez Canal.

Work to free the vessel involved more than a month of intensive dredging, two failed attempts to refloat the ship with tugboats, and the removal of about 500 containers to lighten the load on board. Ever Forward was finally extracted from the oyster bar 18 April 2022. The event prompted a letter from Maryland comptroller Peter Franchot calling for Evergreen Line to establish an initial US$100M ’responsibility fund’ to compensate and reimburse those involved or whose livelihoods will be impacted by the incident.

In December 2022, a US Coast Guard report determined “the incident’s causal factors to be the pilot’s failure to maintain situational awareness and attention while navigating, and inadequate bridge resource management.”

The USCG report questioned the use of portable devices by the pilot at the time and the impact on ship navigation as well as whether junior officers were sufficiently aware of their duties and obligations as officers on watch for the safety of the ship.

As part of its mitigation plan for the Ever Forward grounding, Maryland’s Board of Public Works approved a wetlands licence "that requires shipping company Evergreen Marine Corp to pay US$676,200 for the seeding and enhancement of oyster bars to mitigate the effects on aquatic habitat caused by the container ship Ever Forward’s grounding and refloating".

According to the group, the grounding and dredging impacted about 14 acres of the Chesapeake Bay sea floor, including 11.5 acres within the boundary of a natural oyster bar.

The Maryland Department of Natural Resources issued a report with the results of a survey regarding the potential impacts to the natural oyster bar and aquatic habitat that said "Aside from the deep footprint of the ship and dredging, the survey found no discernable impacts on oyster populations from the grounding of Ever Forward and subsequent activities to free the ship."

Evergreen Line has issued a statement saying that environmental preservation is ’a cornerstone of Evergreen’s core values’.

"Earlier this week, the Maryland Board of Public Works approved an environmental remediation agreement between the State of Maryland and Evergreen that will establish a fund to provide environmental support to Chesapeake Bay and bolster the health of oyster beds in the area," the statement said.

"After the incident of Ever Forward’s grounding off the Port of Baltimore, Evergreen has been closely working with concerned authorities in an effort to evaluate and mitigate the impact of the refloating operation on the surrounding area."