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“Today, the Klaipėda Regional Prosecutor’s Office presented Grigeo Klaipėda AB with the 48 million LTL prepared and reviewed by the Department of Environmental Protection. Eur civil action for material damage to the environment in a criminal case. I will just remind you that the original 2020 March. the amount of the civil action amounted to 3.9 million. Eur ”, announced on Facebook Olga Vėbrienė, Head of the Department of Environmental Protection.
“The damage was calculated strictly on the basis of the data and documents collected and presented during the pre-trial investigation. We have completely rejected emotions, the most important letter of the law, because the case will undoubtedly be a precedent.
I will not hide, controlling emotions was very difficult. Only the damage caused to the environment is always difficult to quantify, as if those millions were recovering what was lost. In the law, everything is simple, elementary: those who have caused damage to the environment must restore the state of the environment, if possible, to the original state as it was, and compensate for all losses. The reality is different. Legal proceedings are waiting, ”wrote O. Vėbrienė.
Klaipeda District Prosecutor’s Office prosecutor Gina Skersinskytė told BNS that the prosecution had submitted the complaint for a pre-trial investigation, the material of which would be delivered to the court.
“They have filed a lawsuit, which we will refer to the court and will be dealt with together with the criminal case,” the prosecutor told BNS.
When the case will be referred to court, he has yet to say.
“For the Department of the Environment, this case is a turning point. At the same time, it is an obvious reproach and proof that changes are coming, even if it tries to avoid them,” said O. Vėbrienė.
Delfi tried to contact Gigeutas Pangonis, Grigeo’s boss, but did not reply.
Grigeo Klaipėda was surprised by the demand
“We are surprised by the civil lawsuit received today by the Department of Environmental Protection against Grigeo Klaipėda for compensation for material damage caused to the environment. After analyzing the document received, we lack the arguments on the basis of which this amount was calculated.
The document does not contain information on how the damage caused to the Curonian lagoon or the damage to flora and fauna, the state of the water, was determined. We only have a named figure, which is calculated according to the old methodology approved by the Minister of the Environment in 2002. It is not substantiated how the damage was calculated and to what extent it corresponds to the real situation. Taking all this into account, at this moment it is difficult to comment and evaluate the figures presented in more detail, ”says Tomas Eikinas, General Manager of Grigeo Klaipėda.
The comment to the media further states that the investigation is understandably complicated by the fact that there is no data on the actual amounts of incompletely treated wastewater entering the Curonian Lagoon.
“Therefore, in such a precarious situation and when assessing damage to nature, it is necessary to rely on objective data and calculations, as required by Directive 2004/35 / EC of the European Parliament, which is binding on all Member States , as did independent foreign experts from TIG Environmental We submitted their report and proposals for environmental remediation measures to the Department of Environmental Protection in November of last year, but received no response from the Department.
The environmental impact study and the preparation of the recovery plan were based on the monitoring results of the Environmental Protection Agency, Klaipėda Water, the Klaipėda Port Authority, the investigation on the state of the Curonian lagoon by the University of Klaipėda and the State Food and Veterinary Service. . I would like to draw your attention to the fact that after evaluating all these publicly available data, independent foreign experts concluded that the area of the Curonian lagoon affected by the Grigeo Klaipėda sewage should have been limited and that the impact on fish and zooplankton had not been limited. ”Says T. Eikinas.
Delfi recalls that in 2021 On January 7, a year after the event, the Klaipėda Regional Prosecutor’s Office announced that damages to nature could reach between 1 and 5 million. euros. Until the end, the real damage caused to nature was not yet firm, because the conclusions of the experts hired by the company did not coincide with the data of the Prosecutor’s Office investigation.
“The damage has been calculated up to today, but we cannot name it yet, because the company hires experts, who have indicated that no damage has been done to nature. We think different. We do not want to reveal it now, because we believe that the court should rule on it, “said the prosecutor supervising the investigation, Gina Skersinskytė.
According to her, which suspects will go to court and whether Gintautas Pangonis will be the main shareholder of the Grigeo group among them will be clarified once the case is transferred to court. There are nine suspects in total: eight natural persons and Grigeo Klaipeda.
It was previously announced that the suspects include G. Pangonis and Tomas Eikinas, the head of Grigeo Klaipėda, who has been working since December 2019.
The investigation was initiated both for environmental damage and for the falsification of a large number of documents.
Grigeo Klaipėda’s contamination came to light in January last year, when prosecutors launched an investigation into the contamination of the Curonian lagoon with untreated sewage. Delfi recalls that on the night of January 7 last year a search was carried out that was particularly significant for the investigation.
The search was carried out at night by 25 policemen. The researchers say they can’t tell how many years of such contamination has been going on for years, just to name it, it actually happened in more than one day. According to the investigators, the equipment was intentionally installed in such a way that part of the sewage treatment plants would bypass sewage and, after entering the Klaipedos Vandenai pipes, they flowed into the Curonian lagoon in Dumpiai.
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