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Wastewater from Lithuanian cardboard plant to have negative long-term effect on Latvia's sea environment - Environmental Service

BC, Riga, 10.01.2020.Print version
The wastewater pollution from Lithuanian cardboard plant Grigeo in the Curonian Lagoon is having a negative long-term effect on on sea environment also in Latvia, the State Environment Service's representative Darta Seso told LETA.

She said that the State Environment Service had contacted the Lithuanian Environmental Protection Department whose representatives informed that the level of pollution in the leaked wastewater was several times above the norm but that the pollution was not critical as it consisted of organic compounds and contained no toxic substances. 


The pollution in the Baltic Sea poses no threats to human health but it will still have a negative long-term effect on the sea environment, said Seso. 


The Lithuanian Environmental Protection Department also sent an official reply to the Latvian State Environment Service's request to provide  information about the wastewater pollution in the Curonian Lagoon. The Lithuanian authority said that an inspection on the night of January 7 revealed that completely or partly untreated wastewater from the Grigeo plant was flowing into the Curonian Lagoon. 


Gintautas Pangonis, Grigeo president and main shareholder, says untreated wastewater was released into the Curonian Lagoon via an emergency pipe.

In his words, some wastewater entered the Curonian Lagoon after mechanical treatment but it was not treated biologically. He could not say how much wastewater had been released into the Curonian Lagoon.


The company has pledged to compensate for the environmental damage done.






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