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Julius Dargis, director of Rapsoila, a company operating in the village of Ukrinų, Mažeikiai district, confirmed to BNS that investigative actions had been carried out at the company.
“The investigation is ongoing, it has been inspected, but I cannot comment further,” said the director of the company.
According to the department, environmentalists and police officers from Šiauliai County searched the company on Wednesday. During them, the company’s wastewater treatment system and equipment was evaluated, wastewater samples and relevant documents for the study were taken.
It is estimated that the company was engaged in the production of fatty acid methyl ester extracted from wastewater discharged from rapeseed to the environment during 2018 and 2019. The total amount of raw wastewater discharged would be equivalent to 300 train tanks.
“The attention of the specialists of the Department of Environmental Protection and the excellent work carried out allowed us to gather enough evidence about possible environmental contamination. We hope that, in cooperation with law enforcement agencies, the possible damage to the environment caused by the company will be clarified ”, quotes Olga Vėbrienė, director of the Department of Environmental Protection.
According to the department, the non-compliance of the extracted groundwater and wastewater was determined by environmentalists during an unscheduled inspection carried out in September last year.
“The company explained this fact that the amount of wastewater generated is determined by the biodiesel production capacity, as well as by the quality indicators of the raw materials used, and the water is not used in production. As a result, fluctuations in the amount of wastewater generated do not match the amount of groundwater extracted, ”environmentalists say.
Continuing with the study and analyzing the data, the environmentalists assumed that in 2018 and 2019, the company discharged untreated wastewater through the outlet specified in the Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control permit without operating the water treatment plant. industrial or domestic waste.
According to environmentalists, the company managed to release almost 12,2 thousand. cubic meters of production and more than 6.6 thousand. cubic meters of household waste. Also, the company may not have paid about $ 80,000. taxes in euros.
After collecting data and assessing the circumstances, AAD officials turned to the police last year, who launched a pre-trial investigation into a systematic violation of environmental regulations that could have caused significant harm.
Company: the information released by the department failed to the public
In a submitted comment, the biofuel producer Rapsoila claims that it is cooperating with law enforcement authorities, but the information released by the Department of Environmental Protection about a possible case of contamination is misleading to the public.
“The company is accused of regularly discharging sewage into the stream. We would like to clarify that this company regularly discharges rainwater.
2018-2021 14 inspections were carried out in the company, in 13 of them it was not established that the wastewater exceeded pollution standards. Only the result of a March inspection exceeded the norm. Following the results of this investigation, the company plans to re-investigate and take action.
Rapsoila is also accused of discharging less water into the sewer system, potentially releasing industrial wastewater into the environment. We want to highlight that the company consumes 16 thousand. cubic meters of water, of which 5 thousand cubic meters of non-polluting wastewater are used under an agreement with Orlen Lietuva and the rest (11 thousand cubic meters) is used in production. Therefore, the comment of Olga Vėbrienė, Director of the Department of Environmental Protection, that untreated waste from 300 train tanks enters the environment is fundamentally false.
Rapsoila adheres to the principles of sustainable operation and transparency: we are prepared to answer all questions from society and law enforcement. Rapsoila invites you not to rush to evaluate the comments made by O. Vėbrienė in the public space.
For example, on his Facebook account, O. Vėbrienė has posted a photo with a green liquid in a stream, thus creating the impression that it is a factory pollutant. However, the photo shows a non-polluting liquid used by environmentalists and poured into the water to determine the flow of water from the plant to the environment, ”the company said in a comment.
The pre-trial investigation is led by the Šiauliai Regional Prosecutor’s Office, and the investigation is carried out by investigators from the Serious Crimes Investigation Board of the Šiauliai County Police.
Gabrielė Petkuvienė, representative of the Šiauliai Regional Prosecutor’s Office, told BNS that the name of the legal entity mentioned in the police reports is not made public by decision of the prosecutor Saulius Kulikauskas.
“A pre-trial investigation has been launched, no charges have been brought against anyone. It is just the beginning of the pre-trial investigation. Just as we do not name private suspects, we do not name private companies,” he said.
It is not allowed to publish, quote or reproduce the information of the BNS news agency in the media and on websites without the written consent of the UAB “BNS”.
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