Poland was admitted to the European Union on May 1, 2004 because it was able to meet the requirements for membership, including tight environmental standards. By the 1980s, the country had suffered ecologically disastrous levels of pollution after years of infrastructure neglect. Lemna International, based in Minneapolis, has been instrumental in the clean up, building over 80 wastewater treatment ponds in Poland during the past 15 years. Lemna is the largest United States presence in the ecological field in Poland. Viet Ngo, Lemna's founder and CEO, says that Poland is a predominantly rural country of villages located 5km apart with populations of around 5-6,000. Lemna adapted to these local conditions, offering an affordable alternative for a de-centralized, flexible and less intrusive system of wastewater treatment. The key to this system is a series of treatment lagoons around the countryside using Lemna's patented technologies involving natural biological processes and when an enclosed system is necessary, their trade-marked modular insulated covers. The lagoons are easily and quickly constructed by digging holes in the ground and lining them with geomembrane, so waste-water cannot seep into the surroundings.
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