Federal judge upholds county claims in lawsuit over Golden Ray damages

Taylor Cooper, The Brunswick News, Ga.
·4 min read

Sep. 7—A federal judge upheld two claims this week in a lawsuit between Glynn County and the owners of the Golden Ray that seeks roughly $98 million in damages to compensate the county for environmental damage caused by a series of oil spills and fires before and during the cleanup of the ship.

The Golden Ray was a 656-foot cargo ship that was outbound through the St. Simons Sound carrying 4,161 vehicles when it capsized on Sept. 8, 2019. The filing contends that "each vehicle's tank was 25% full of fuel. In total, the vessel was transporting approximately 240,000 gallons of diesel fuel and over 86,000 gallons of heavy bunker fuel."

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