The pre-trial investigation into the raw sewage discharged by Grigeo Klaipėda into the Curonian lagoon is coming to an end – the damage is certainly not 1 or 5 million. euros

Can’t take surveys

The Chief Prosecutor of the Klaipėda D.Pocienė Regional Prosecutor’s Office, participating in a remote meeting of the Seimas Environmental Protection Committee, stated that the pre-trial investigation into this ecological accident had almost been completed at the beginning of the year. It is scheduled to be completed by the end of the year, but the pandemic situation has significantly slowed down processes.

Prosecutors are currently unable to conduct contact processes, as the Attorney General said, this is related to interrogations, so the prosecutors’ own actions are, in a sense, frozen. The prosecution is waiting for the quarantine restrictions to be released and then the processes can be completed.

Certainly we will not name the amounts now, but it is not a million or five million, they are much larger amounts.

“We won’t really name the amounts right now, but it’s not about one or five million, it’s significantly higher amounts.” We cannot name them at this time. We already have preliminary damage figures, I can only say that the pre-trial investigation is nearing completion, but it must be recognized that the situation in the country is also holding us back in some processes. We are inevitably unable to take procedural contact action at this time, this is related to interviews. We are a bit procedurally frozen, ”said D.Pocienė.

When the case went to court, the prosecutor could not say exactly: “The volume of this pre-trial investigation is very large, both in terms of individuals and final procedural decisions, as there are so many documents in the case itself, more than 50 volumes have already been collected. Imagine how much knowledge there will be with such an amount, etc. But we are at the finish line, as soon as the state releases the quarantine conditions, as soon as we can safely, without reproach, invite people to the final procedures, we hope it will be right after the New Year, that’s what what are we going to do. We are ready, we have to wait for the quarantine conditions to be simplified. “

Asked about the procedural coercive measures applied to Grigeo Klaipėda, D.Pocienė said that it is a restriction of activities, but not for production, but for the treatment of wastewater.

“All the complaints that have been received in this matter are resolved in a procedural manner pending a final judicial decision, that is, the courts have recognized that they are applied in a reasonable and legal manner. The second procedural coercive measure is the restriction of the ownership of the physical facilities in Dumpia, that is, the buildings themselves and the treatment facilities themselves, leaving a very small part for their use, which refers to natural natural waters and not to production waste, since this is related to need “.

D.Pocienė also said that there is a group of dozens of people for whom criminal responsibility is being decided.

Conducted an audit and received recommendations

Robertas Krutikovas, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Grigeo Klaipėda, told the Seimas Environmental Protection Committee that at the beginning of the year the Grigeo Group initiated an international expert audit of Grigeo Klaipėda: a comprehensive audit of the environmental, safety and occupational and business health.

“It was carried out from March to July, something hampered by the pandemic, it prevented us from carrying out certain audits in the factory itself. However, in July it was completed and we received about 48 recommendations for improvements in the organization, of which about 20 have been implemented and we aim to implement them all as soon as possible, ”said R. Krutikov.

According to him, the audit was carried out in different sections, resulting in recommendations on how to improve performance so that both senior executives have detailed information about what is happening in the organization, and to help the new tools of the plant to Avoid mistakes that have been made in the past.

“Those lessons that were there were big and painful enough, the company really learned them and is working hard to prevent this from happening again in the future. We have reviewed the management structure of the organization, a completely new position of the manager has emerged – the Head of Sustainability, ”said R. Krutikov, promising that progress will be made in this area and that the company will do more than it belongs.

R. Krutikovas also stated that in February he contacted state institutions in an attempt to initiate an independent expert study that would assess the impact on the environment and the damage to the Curonian lagoon.

“There was some dialogue, but without receiving answers we started the search for experts ourselves, there was a long and complicated search. We have agreed with TIG Environmental, which carried out that experience, and the findings of the experts are currently being presented to the Department of Environmental Protection, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Attorney General’s Office. As we are not specialists in the environment, we cannot comment on the conclusions of these experts, so we refer the conclusions of the experts to the specialists in the environment ”, said the Chairman of the Board.

On the eve of this meeting, Grigeo Klaipėda issued a report on these findings, stating that according to the findings, the area of ​​the Curonian lagoon affected by the Grigeo Klaipėda sewage should have been limited and the impact on fish and zooplankton it shouldn’t have been affected.

It does not promise odors

Tomas Eikinas, director of the company, said that the company’s renovation plan was presented to the public. He mentioned that since January the issue of odors has been reviewed from the territory where the company operates (Nemuno str. 2, Klaipėda), a detailed program has been drawn up and implemented to determine the causes of odors in various stages.

“Certain measures have been implemented, which in the future will make it possible to control and analyze the causes and problems of odor formation, to control it. As we are committed, we have recently implemented an odor monitoring system with a metrological station, we see the data every day, we can judge what concentration of odors we have based on it.

So far this is only data available to the company, as the system has recently been launched, we are monitoring it, we cannot draw any long-term conclusions yet, but the data provides that opportunity, we have not had it until now. Our long-term commitment to both the residents of Klaipėda and the city community is that the odor problem in Grigeo Klaip enda on Nemuno Street must be resolved, ”said T. Eikinas.

The sludge that has been composted in Dumpiai should not remain in the future, it has been agreed to transfer it to incineration. Then there will be no problems with odors. The company now claims to manage the accumulated compost.

“To reduce odors and wastewater pollution, we periodically disinfect swimming pools, because the main cause of odors is bacteria. We use a lot of water, paper, waste paper, sufficient temperature in our business process, which is favorable conditions for bacteria to multiply, it generates bad odors ”, said the director.

He reminded her of this after hearing the remark from the Seimas member, the well-known public figure of Klaipėda Ligita Girskienė, that she would like to get results due to pollution and odor formation not in the future, but now, in the first stage. .

The director also recalled that the company has agreed to establish an environmental fund, now it has signed an agreement with the University of Klaipeda, to which it will allocate 0.5 million. to see not only what has been, but also the future: dust, odors, contamination by microplastics, etc.

Check the boiler room

Olga Vėbrienė, Director of the Department of Environmental Protection, confirmed that complaints are received from the community about the company’s activities and every effort is being made to respond to them. When asked if mandatory instructions were issued for Grigeo Klaipėda during the last six months, some sanction, administrative measures were applied, the director confirmed.

“Administrative measures have been applied, so far no mandatory instructions have been given, because there is nothing, because Klaipėdos vandenys removes the sewage. Perhaps our last step will be with the use of the boiler room, where there have recently been potential contamination incidents where we have received a number of complaints from the community.

We wrote to the Environmental Protection Agency to do an ongoing month-long study of what’s going on in the air to see all the chemicals listed on the paper, which would help answer many of the questions the community is asking, “said O .. Vėbrienė.

An ecological accident occurred at the beginning of the year, when it was established that Grigeo Klaipėda discharges untreated sewage into the Curonian lagoon. Read more here: At night, officials found what pollutes the Curonian lagoon: Grigeo Klaipeda faces millions in fines.