Former managers blamed for water pollution scandal in Lithuanian port city

   VILNIUS, Feb. 11-- Biologically untreated wastewater has been discharged into the sewage networks of Lithuania's port city of Klaipeda based on the decisions of the former managers of the Grigeo Klaipeda cardboard factory, the company announced in the conclusions of its internal investigation published on Tuesday.
   "We realize our responsibility and we are not avoiding it. We are cooperating with the law enforcement agencies and the environmentalists in order to disclose facts as many as possible," Tomas Eikinas, Grigeo Klaipeda's chief executive officer (CEO), was quoted as saying in a company statement. 
   Back in January, Lithuania's law enforcement authorities discovered that Grigeo Klaipeda had allegedly dumped untreated wastewater into the Curonian Lagoon.  
   The company stated on Tuesday that its water treatment facility was built in 1976 and modernized in 2004, when biological wastewater treatment equipment was also installed. This equipment was renewed in 2012. 
   The company's production unit was responsible for operating the wastewater treatment equipment as well as for organizing and supervising the wastewater treatment process. Former CEO Vidas Berzonskis, who led the company from June 2013 to May 2019, was responsible for approving and implementing the wastewater treatment procedures, the company stated.
   Partially biologically untreated wastewater entered Klaipeda's sewage networks for the most part during the tenure of the former head of the production unit and the former CEO, Grigeo Klaipeda alleged.
   "We ourselves have a lot of questions as to what the motives were to release biologically untreated wastewater when the company was profitable," Eikinas said in the statement.
   Eikinas took over the management of Grigeo Klaipeda in December 2019.
   Last month, the city's prosecutors launched a pre-trial investigation into allegations that Grigeo Klaipeda had released untreated wastewater into the Curonian Lagoon.
   According to the prosecutors, "tens of millions" of euros worth of damage might have been caused.
   Currently, six natural persons are considered suspects in this case, local media reported. Xinhua