STT declines to investigate Vilnius waste crisis decisions

Lithuania’s Special Investigation Service has declined to open pre-trial investigations into actions by Vilnius Municipality and the Vilnius County Waste Management Center during the region’s waste crisis, LRT reported, citing BNS.

The investigation service said it found no objective evidence that civil servants or equivalent officials had abused their positions or exceeded their powers while carrying out their duties.

Elektrėnai Municipality had asked the Prosecutor General’s Office to assess the legality and possible consequences of the waste management center’s decision to transport mixed municipal waste from the region to the landfill in Kazokiškės. The service decided on July 27 not to open an investigation, and a prosecutor confirmed the decision as lawful and justified on August 2.

Elektrėnai Municipality had opposed an instruction from the waste management center and the head of operations for the capital’s emergency situation requiring all waste carriers in the Vilnius region to transport waste to Kazokiškės from July 14. On July 15, the center temporarily halted the transport of unsorted waste to the landfill.

The Special Investigation Service also decided on August 13 not to investigate decisions restructuring the Vilnius region’s municipal waste management system. Opposition members of the Vilnius City Council had asked prosecutors to assess whether officials exceeded their powers, abused their positions or harmed the public interest when adopting the decisions.

The service said the legality and justification of that decision not to open a pre-trial investigation were currently being assessed by the prosecution.

After a court ordered the operator of the Vilnius waste sorting plant, Energesman, not to obstruct the waste management center from handling waste at the plant, the center took over its operation from Energesman at the end of July, BNS reported. The center reached agreements with waste management companies Ecoservice, Ekonovus and Ekobaze to sort all of the region’s waste. It is also handling tens of thousands of tonnes of waste that had accumulated on the plant’s premises.

Elektrėnai Municipality declared an emergency in late March because of pollution at the Kazokiškės landfill. The municipal council called for the landfill’s operating permit to be revoked and proposed finding a new location.

Authorities decided to cover 14,000 tonnes of semi-combustible waste brought to the landfill from the waste sorting plant, which caught fire last year. The waste crisis in the Vilnius region began after that fire, and the plant’s operations have not yet been restored.